I understand.. I would rather have them to make cut and take blood that way rather than use needles. (Seriously, however I know from biology it does not work that way even though they tried it during quackery-era of medicine.)
Uhm.. That is just traditional mint-colouring (This one most commonly polka-mint here, peppermint in general) which has been popular loppipop flavour here for couple centuries. There are still a lot of those kinds of lollipops sold done in traditional way and colours. Most often red and green are a bit more brighter.
Not everything is political if people were a bit more educated. Doubtfull it is intentional.