A preliminary study on patulin contamination in spirit drinks

ABSTRACT

A total of 120 spirit drinks and 40 apple juices were collected between 2018 and 2020 in three regions of Turkey and analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a photodiode array detector (HPLC-PDA) for the incidence of patulin. The analytical method was successfully validated for both matrices. In 26.7% of apple juice samples, patulin was quantified at levels between 5.8 and 66.4 µg L⁻¹. Only one regulatory level exceedance was identified for apple juice. The mean dietary exposure of the adult population to patulin ranged from 0.083 to 0.091 ng kg⁻¹ bw day⁻¹. With the HPLC-PDA method, patulin was measured in quantifiable concentrations in 11 out of 25 cognac, 5 out of 40 liqueur, and 1 out of 10 whisky samples, up to a level of 42.6 µg/l, whereas all vodka samples were free from patulin. In only one liqueur sample, the presence of patulin could be confirmed with LC-MS/MS, at a level of 8.9 µg L⁻¹.

KEYWORDS:

• Patulin
• spirit drinks
• apple juice
• occurrence
• exposure assessment
• food safety
• LC-MS/MS confirmation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.