Occurrence of patulin in organic and conventional apple-based food marketed in Catalonia and exposure assessment

• There is higher number of patulin positives samples in organic apple-based products than in conventional ones.
• The mean concentration of patulin was higher in organic than in conventional apple-based products.
• All the estimated intakes of patulin calculated from the data of this study are below the PMTDI.

In the last years, consumption of organic foods has become increasingly popular. Nevertheless, safety of organic foods is still unclear, and needs to be thoroughly evaluated. Patulin is a mycotoxin mainly present in rotten apples and apple-based products. The aim of this study is to analyse the content of patulin in apple juices and purees derived from organic and conventional production systems, in order to assess the risk to consumers, particularly in children. A total of 93 apple-based products marketed in Catalonia were analysed, 49 of which were derived from conventional and 44 from organic farming. The results showed higher incidence of positive samples and higher concentration of patulin in organic apple purees when comparing with conventional ones. In the case of juices, significant differences were found between conventional and organic samples, but applying a multivariate analysis the type of agriculture did not seem to have a relevant contribution to patulin occurrence, being cloudiness the main factor involved. The estimated daily intake of patulin for infants and young children (0–3 years old), children (4–18 years old) and adults (19–66 years old), were below the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake (PMTDI) of 0.4 μg/kg bw in all scenarios considered.