Improved positive electrospray ionization of patulin by adduct formation: Usefulness in liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry multi-mycotoxin analysis

► Intense and useful ESI+-MS/MS patulin signal through methanol-adduct formation. ► Confirmation and fragmentation behavior of patulin methanol-adduct. ► Unambiguous assignment by multistage MS (ion trap) and high resolution MS (Orbitrap). ► Inclusion of patulin in a multi-analyte LC-ESI+-MS/MS method for 23 mycotoxins.