Investigation of pat levels in apple, apple vinegar, apple juice and concentrates

Patulin (PAT) is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by some mold species such as Penicillium expansum and has adverse effects such as toxicity, mutagenicity and immunotoxicity. Mold fungi that produce PAT (PAT) cause rot and contamination in apples. This cause PAT residues to be found in apple products such as apple juice and apple juice concentrate. The aim of this thesis study is to determine the PAT contamination levels, which have serious toxic effects, in apple, apple juice, apple juice concentrate and apple cider vinegar. In addition, the variation of PAT contamination in apples during storage was also investigated in this thesis. A total of 78 samples were extracted with ethly acetate using the liquid-liquid extraction technique and PAT levels were determined with a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) instrument with diode array detector (DAD). In our study, the highest PAT contamination was found in a rotten apple sample (36.496 µg/kg) taken at the 3rd month of storage, and the average PAT concentration of all samples was found to be 1,240,246 µg/kg. The PAT level of none of the apple juice samples exceeded the legal limit (50 µg/L). However, the PAT level of two of the apple juice concentrate samples was above this limit. It was determined that 4 homemade apple cider vinegar samples contained PAT over 50 µg/L. It has also been determined that the contamination of PAT-producing molds that are constantly present in the environment of apples stored in cold storage cannot be prevented, and the PAT levels in apples increase due to the increase in the contamination in the environment as the storage period increases. The results of our study showed that PAT contamination still poses a problem for apples and its products in our country, and if domestic and commercial production conditions are not taken into account, PAT contamination can exceed legal limits and reach levels that threaten health.