Patulin in South African commercial apple products

A survey on the presence of the mycotoxin, patulin, was conducted from 1996 to 1998 on sixty locally produced commercial apple products purchased from retail outlets in South Africa. Twenty-three of the 31 fruit juice samples had no detectable patulin contamination. The 8 contaminated juice samples had patulin concentrations ranging between 5 and 45 mug/l with a mean of 10 mug/l patulin. Of 6 whole fruit products, 2 samples were contaminated with 10 mug/g patulin. From 10 infant fruit juices, 6 samples had patulin concentrations ranging between 5 and 20 mug/l. The infant fruit purees showed no detectable patulin contamination. The low incidence of patulin in South African commercial apple products indicates that the quality of the fruit and the manufacturing practices are of a high standard. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.