Determination of patulin in apple juice: comparative evaluation of four analytical methods.

The performance of 4 purification methods for the analysis of patulin in apple juice was evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Samples were spiked with patulin at 10, 20, 50, 100, and 150 ppb (ng/mL) and extracted by one of 4 methods (3 solid-phase extraction and one liquid-liquid extraction), and then analyzed by HPLC-UV under the same isocratic conditions. The methods were validated for recovery, linearity, and precision at high and low concentrations. Recoveries were all >70% for spiking range 10-150 ppb. The relative standard deviation for repeatability was found to meet European Union Directive requirements. In addition, all the methods showed baseline separation from hydroxymethylfurfural.