Probabilistic risk assessment of patulin in imported apple juice and apple‐containing beverages in Taiwan

BACKGROUND In Taiwan, nearly 90% of apples and raw ingredients for apple‐based products are imported. Apple juices (137 samples) and apple‐containing beverages (35 samples) were collected in Taiwan from imported food and analyzed for patulin content. RESULTS The results revealed that the incidence levels of patulin for apple juice and apple‐containing beverages are 5.84% and 5.71%. The mean contamination levels were 1.7 and 1.4 μg kg −1 for apple juice and apple‐containing beverages. One sample exceeded 50 μg kg −1 , the maximum permissible limit according to the Taiwan Sanitation Standard for the Tolerance of Mycotoxins in Foods. The estimated intake of patulin for consumers ranged from 5.4 to 18.0 ng kg −1 body weight per day for apple juice and between 6.1 and 11.2 ng kg −1 body weight for apple‐containing beverages. The highest average patulin intake was observed among infants aged 0–3 years, followed by children aged 4–12 years old. Finally, the hazard index (HI) for the 50th, 90th, and 95th percentiles are 0.0186, 0.1201, and 0.2048, respectively, for infants aged 0–3 years. CONCLUSION The dietary intake of patulin from imported apple juices and apple‐containing beverages is well below the safety levels and does not present a risk for adult and children consumers. However, it is important to point out that we only analyzed imported apple juices and apple‐containing beverages. More studies are necessary to establish if the HI for patulin will still remain below 1 when other foods and beverages are included in the risk calculations. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry