Survey of patulin occurrence in apple juice and apple products in Catalonia, Spain, and an estimate of dietary intake

This study was conducted to assess patulin exposure in the Catalonian population. Patulin levels were determined in 161 apple juice samples, 77 solid apple-based food samples and 146 apple-based baby food samples obtained from six hypermarkets and supermarkets from twelve main cities of Catalonia, Spain. Patulin was analysed by a well-established validated method involving ethyl acetate extraction and direct analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet light detection. Mean patulin levels for positive samples in apple juice, solid apple-based food and apple-based baby food were 8.05, 13.54 and 7.12 mu g kg(-1), respectively. No samples exceeded the maximum permitted levels established by European Union regulation. Dietary intake was separately assessed for babies, infants and adults through a Food Frequency Questionnaire developed from 1056 individuals from Catalonia. Babies were the main group exposed to patulin, however no risk was detected at these levels of contamination. Adults and infants consumers were far from risk levels. Another approach to determine estimated exposure was conducted through Monte Carlo simulation that distinguishes variability in exposures from uncertainty of distributional parameter estimates.