Quantification of the mycotoxin patulin by a stable isotope dilution assay

Two stable isotope dilution assays for the quantification of patulin [4- hydroxy-4H-furo[3,2-c]pyran-2(6H)-one] in foods were developed using ¹³C- labeled patulin as the internal standard. One method was performed by means of LC/MS in negative electrospray ionization mode without derivatization; the other used HRGC/HRMS after trimethylsilylation of the patulin isotopomers. In comparison with previously reported methods based on high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection, HRGC/HRMS of the derivatized samples showed better repeatability, higher recovery rates (96% at a spike level of 200 ng/L), and a 100 times lower detection limit (12 ng/L). In contrast, LC/MS showed a much lower performance as compared to HPLC/UV or HRGC/HRMS. Using HRGC/HRMS, the mycotoxin was quantified in many different fruit products and in molded wheat bread.