High-fructose corn syrup and the well-being of bees

One cold day late last month I’m walking out of the grocery store with a half gallon of peach iced tea in a plastic bag and it hits me: honey bees. Yes, I think of honey bees in early winter. The reason: it occurs to me that the iced tea isn’t diet iced tea and it probably has high-fructose corn syrup in it. I like diet drinks because they have little or no calories. Apart from its high caloric content, there is something else about the sweetener that I remember.  I open the bag and check the ingredients on the container. Sure enough: high-fructose corn syrup.

So now, I suspect, you’ll want to know about the bee connection to all of this. Well, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is that ubiquitous sweetener in soft drinks and processed foods that sometimes gets blamed for contributing to obesity in humans. It may, however, pose a different threat for honeybees, which are critical for pollinating dozens of food crops. Scientists have found that the syrup, sometimes fed to bees, forms potentially dangerous levels of a toxic substance in the presence of summer-like heat.

Their study appears in the ACS’ bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. That substance is called hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF).

“In addition to high-fructose corn syrup being used in many drinks and foods,
some commercial beekeepers also feed it to bees during times when natural food is not available,” says Diana Sammataro, a researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson. She talks about her team’s study in an ACS Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast now available on the ACS Office of Public Affairs Press Room Web site.

“When exposed to high temperatures, HFCS can form HMF, which can kill honeybees,” according to Sammataro. “Some researchers believe that HMF may be one of many contributing factors in Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that has killed at least one-third of the honeybee population in the United States.”

Sammataro and colleagues measured levels of HMF in HFCS products from different manufacturers over a period of 35 days at different temperatures. As temperatures rose, levels of HMF increased steadily. Levels jumped dramatically at about 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

“The data are important for commercial beekeepers, for manufacturers
of HFCS, and for purposes of honey bee food storage,” she says. “Proper storage (not leaving the syrup in tanks outside in the sun) and testing HFCS,
is vital to be sure that there is no HMF. If there is any question about
if the syrup is safe to feed to bees, either beekeepers should have it
tested or throw it away.”

To access this Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast, go to High fructose.