Some apple juice may contain unhealthy levels of toxin patulin

For those of you unfamiliar with the connection between apple juice and the toxin, patulin, a new study adds weight to a growing body of research suggesting there are unhealthy levels of patulin in some apple juice sold in Europe and North America.

Spanish scientists have detected levels of patulin, which is a type of toxin produced by fungi, in excess of legal limits in several commercial apple juices sold throughout Europe.

"The results show that more than 50 per cent of the samples analysed exceeded the maximum contents laid down by European law," explains study author Monsalud del Olmo, who published his findings in the June issue of Food Control.

Canada's maximum limit of patulin in apple juice is 50 parts per billion (ppb), which is the same limit laid out by the European Union and the World Health Organization. However, some of the 19 apple juice samples tested in the European study had as much as 114.4 ppb.

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Why is this study relevant to Canadians?

Well, for one, we also have a history of excess levels of patulin in some of our commercially sold apple juice and apple ciders.

In Ontario in 2010, 12 per cent of apple cider samples tested by the provincial government were shown to have levels of patulin in excess of 50 ppb. And in July 2012, the federal government made it illegal to sell apple juice or cider in excess of 50 ppb.

Patulin is naturally occurring in apples, but becomes a problem when apple juice and apple cider producers make their products from apples that have fallen from trees, are rotting, or have mold. Juice made from these apples will likely have high levels of patulin.

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According to the Canadian government "patulin may cause gastrointestinal irritation and kidney dysfunction, as well as immunotoxic, genotoxic and clastogenic effects in many animal species when ingested at sufficiently high doses."

Some studies have suggested that patulin may cause cancer, though the World Health Organization, Canadian government, and U.S. government do not entirely support that assertion.

WHO reports that patulin is "not classifiable as carcinogenic, although it has not been proven that it is not." This means the medical evidence to-date is not strong enough to classify patulin as a carcinogen.