Häagen-Dazs, the luxury ice-cream brand, has become the first large food company to fund research into honey bee “colony collapse disorder” – the mystery syndrome blamed for the destruction of about 25 per cent of the US bee population since late 2006.

The brand, licensed in the US by Nestlé, is making a $250,000 grant (€170,000, £130,000) to university researchers in California and Pennsylvania.