Honey bees cannot sense harmful concentrations of metal pollutants in food.

Whether animals can actively avoid food contaminated with harmful compounds through taste is key to assess their ecotoxicological risks. Here, we investigated the ability of honey bees to perceive and avoid food resources contaminated with common metal pollutants known to impair behaviour at low concentrations. In laboratory assays, bees did not discriminate food contaminated with arsenic, lead or zinc and ingested it readily, up to estimated doses of 929.