Occurrence of patulin in various fruit juice marketed in Tunisia

Patulin (PAT) is a secondary metabolite, which is mainly produced by certain species of Aspergillus and Penicillium fungi. The objective of this study is to investigate the presence of Patulin in various fruit products marketed and consumed in Tunisia. A total of 214 samples (30 concentrated juice samples, 42 apple juice samples, 42 pear juice samples, 34 mixed juice samples, 35 compote samples, 15 apple jams samples and 16 pear jam samples) were analyzed. The incidence of PAT contamination was 50% with a concentration ranging from 2 to 889 μg/l with an average of 89 μg/l and a median of 41 μg/l. Twenty two percent (22%) of total analyzed samples exceeded the limit recommended by the European Union. Our results showed that PAT seems to be a problem in fruit products marketed in Tunisia, which required and recommended a hard and fast surveillance of this toxin.