Patulin contamination in apple products marketed in Shiraz, Southern Iran

Background and Purpose:

Patulin is one of the important mycotoxins, produced by a wide range of molds, including Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Bysochlamys. Patulin is mainly found in the rotten parts of fruits and vegetables, such as apples, pears, peach, apricots, and grapes. Currently, the Codex Alimentarius and Food and Drug Administration have recommended a maximum level of 50 µg/L patulin for apple products. The purpose of this study was to investigate patulin contamination of apple juice and cans in 75 samples collected from 15 manufacturers in Shiraz, southern Iran.

Materials and Methods:

The detection of patulin was accomplished using a high-performance liquid chromatography with an ultraviolet detector.

Results:

A total of 38 apple juice samples (53%) and 17 apple cans (45%) were contaminated with patulin. Overall 50% and 3% of the apple juice and apple cans samples had a patulin level of > 3 µg/L.

Conclusion:

Although the maximum level of patulin in our samples was considerably lower than the permitted level established by the European Union (i.e., 50 µg/L), the high incidence of this mycotoxin in our samples should be lessen by improving their good manufacturing practice.

A rapid determination of patulin using capillary zone electrophoresis and its application to analysis of apple juices

This study describes a capillary zone electrophoretic method for the determination of patulin. An optimum run buffer was found to be 25 mM of sodium tetraborate and 10% acetonitrile (v/v) at pH 10. Optimum conditions were determined to be: an applied voltage of 25 kV (normal polarity), temperature of 25°C and injection time of 10 s at 50 mbar; the signals of patulin and phenobarbital as internal standard were detected at 276 nm. The method was highly reproducible, with relative standard deviations of 0.02-0.85 for intra-day and 0.04-0.42 for inter-day for standard patulin. Acceptable linearity [y = 0.0020C (μg/L) - 0.0680 (r = 0.9999)] was obtained over a concentration range of 0.25 to 4.99 µg/mL of patulin. The limits of detection and quantification were calculated to be 5.9 × 10(-3) and 1.79 × 10(-2) µg/mL, respectively. Recovery was 68.0%. The proposed method was applied to 21 apple juice samples purchased from different Turkish markets, and two were found to contain higher than the limits of the European Union Directive for patulin.