When the honey became green, blue and red!

Imagine trying to collect some honey and finding it in colours of green, blue and the brightest hues you can find instead of the typical golden yellow. This was exactly the kind of fix that beekeepers in France found themselves in!

The year was 2012, and beekeepers in northeastern France were in a dilemma. They harvested the honey from their farm, but it was blue and green in colour! First thought to be a health hazard, possibly, and several explanations were tried to be connected to it, including issues with the weather, flowers and the soil. But it was a while later that they stumbled upon the real reason — an M&M factory a bit away. 

You know how M&Ms have a coloured sugar coating around the chocolate? This sugar coating is basically a combination of products like sugar, starch, and glucose syrup, as well as stabilisers like gum arabic and glazing agents such as carnauba wax. Apart from this, edible colours like curcumin (E100), carotenes (E160a), and beetroot red (E162) are added to bring about the bright sugar coating on the chocolates. Finally producing the bright red, yellow, green, blue, brown and orange shaded coating around the mild chocolate

What happened?

The bees, honey bees, eat nectar (for energy, which they convert to honey) and pollen (for protein and other nutrients) from flowers. It was this search for nectar that led the bees to the Mars factory, and since the remnants of the sugar syrup were very sweet, the honeybees made it their regular feast. This led to their body making honey in a variety of colours.

A green-coloured honeycomb from a beehive.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Similar cases                                                                                                                                    

There have also been findings of purple-hued honey in North Carolina, USA. The reason for the same has not been fully understood, but it is believed that certain flowers, a change in soil or even colour from certain berries can bring about such changes (if the honeybees are feeding from the same). 

An iconic situation that arose in Brooklyn was when the honey turned red, creating a bit of a panic among the keepers due to the source of nectar not being known. But later it was found to be Dell’s Maraschino Cherries — a cherry factory near the area where red-shaded honey was discovered in their hives by the beekeepers. A few beekeepers also stopped their farms, as they felt bees were not suited for city life, as they were going in search of artificial sweeteners due to natural nectar being scarce. 

A sample green-coloured honey
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Colour concerns

A major concern that arose post this scenario was how many coloured food items are being consumed by humans, especially children, through confectionery, fruits and berries often coated with colour, and so on and so forth. People were made more conscious of the ingredients being used in the products they often buy. 

It also brought in major concerns about the waste disposal systems in major confectionery factories that use colours and other preservatives. In most of the scenarios where bees found coloured sugar liquids, it was because they were not fully disposed of in the right manner and were often even left open. Factories started to become more careful of their disposal systems as well. The impact of human activity on local ecosystems was also evident once the news about unnaturally coloured honey came out, emphasising how companies and factories needed to create more environmentally friendly methods to co-exist with nature.