Development and single laboratory validation of a method for patulin determination in fruit juices

Patulin contamination is known in various fruit products, including apple products. In this study, a solid phase extraction clean-up method was developed and validated for patulin in various fruit juices. Patulin was extracted from samples with ethyl acetate and then diluted with hexane. Patulin was isolated with a silica gel cartridge column, then analysed by reverse phase liquid chromatography with UV detection. The detection and quantitation limits were 0.06 and 0.15 ng, respectively. Recoveries within a day, and between days, were determined. Within day recoveries of patulin (n=6) at 5.0 and 50.0 µg/kg were 96-105% and 89-95%, respectively, with relative standard deviations (RSD) of 2.4-6.9 and 0.7-1.7%, respectively. Between day recoveries at 5.0 and 50.0 µg/kg were 96-108% and 92-94%, respectively, with RSDs of 7.1-12.1 and 2.3-4.1%, respectively. Average recoveries of patulin in the range from 2.0 to 80.0 µg/kg were 114 to 93%.