According to this old Dartmouth Syllabus from 1994
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chance/course/Syllabi/UCSD/section3_20.html
M&M Mars consumer affairs states that the color ratio for the candy is
30% brown
20% yellow
20% red
10% orange
10% green
10% tan
Clearly things of changed. Tan is no longer available, and Blue has been added. And now today, I just opened a bag that was easily 50% green.
Are there any more recent stats on M&M color ratio?
I don’t know the official stats, but I seem to get almost all browns, blues and reds these days. Those are my least favorite M&M colors. My favorites are green and yellow, but these seem to be rare.
If you got a package with 1/2 greens, consider yourself lucky. I only dream of such things.
For a TV episode I was putting together, we needed some chewables in a prescription bottle, so an actor could shake some out into his hand and chew on them (like Dr. House does with Vicodin).
I decided to use yellow peanut M&Ms, so I went to the vending machine, put in $0.75, and got a bag of peanut M&Ms. I ate all the non-yellow and put the 4 yellow ones in the prescription bottle.
I put another $0.75 in and got another bag. I ate all the non-yellow, and put the 2 yellow ones in the bottle.
Another $0.75, and I was unable to eat anymore, so I started giving them out to cast members. This one had 3 yellows.
The next bag had 5 yellows, and that was enough to fill the prescription bottle.
So, the small bags of M&Ms vary wildly, but I was only counting yellows. 2, 3, 4, and 5.