Evaluation of Quality and Contamination Level of Patulin in Infected Traditional and Commercial Apple Cultivars

Ante Lončarić¹*, Ana-Marija Gotal Skoko¹,  Goran Fruk²,  Antun Jozinović¹,  Ivana Tomac¹,   Tihomir Kovač¹

¹Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Food Technology Osijek, Franje Kuhača 18, 31000 Osijek, Croatia
²University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture, Svetošimunska Cesta 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

ARTICLE INFO	ABSTRACT
TYPE: Original scientific paper https://doi.org/10.17508/CJFST.2024.16.2.02 PDF	The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of various parameters, including water content, total soluble matter, acid content, sugar content, polyphenol content, antioxidant activity, anthocyanin content, and flavonoid content, on the quality of apples and their resistance to Penicillium expansum infection and subsequent patulin production. The research was conducted on four apple cultivars, namely, the traditional cultivars ‘Wagener’ and ‘Ilzer Rosenapfel’, and the commercial cultivars ‘Jonagold’ and ‘Idared’. The results of the study provide valuable insights into the composition, quality attributes, and potential resistance to Penicillium expansum infection among different apple cultivars. It was shown that cultivars with lower content of polyphenols, anthocyanins, soluble matter, flavonoids, antioxidant activity and sugar had higher level of patulin. These findings have implications for the selection and cultivation of apple cultivars with desirable characteristics, such as taste, antioxidant potential, and reduced mycotoxin contamination.
*CORRESPONDENCE Ante Lončarić ante.loncaric@ptfos.hr
ARTICLE HISTORY Received: March 6, 2024 Accepted: July 24, 2024
CITATION Lončarić A, Gotal Skoko A-M, Fruk G, Jozinović A, Tomac I, Kovač T. Evaluation of Quality and Contamination Level of Patulin in Infected Traditional and Commercial Apple Cultivars. Croatian Journal of Food Science and Technology (2024) 16 (2)  xx-xx
COPYRIGHT: © 2024 by the author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
	KEYWORDS apple quality; patulin; Penicillium expansum; food safety
	KEY CONTRIBUTION This study examined the influence of various parameters (water content, total acid content, sugar content, polyphenol content, antioxidant activity, anthocyanin content, flavonoid content) on the quality of traditional and commercial apples and their resistance to infection by P. expansum.