A novel method for determination of patulin in apple juices by GC–MS

•We examined patulin in different apple juice samples mainly using QuEChErs followed by derivatisation procedure.•A selective, reliable and fast GC–MS method was developed.•The method recoveries for patulin in apple juice samples were 79.9–87.9%.•The method limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification were 0.4 and 1.3μg/L. A reliable gas chromatography–mass spectrometry with a QuEChERS procedure has been developed and validated for detection and determination of patulin in apple juice. This procedure includes initial extraction step with acetonitrile, partitioning step by addition of magnesium sulphate, sodium carbonate and sodium chloride, and clean-up step using dispersive solid-phase extraction by addition of a mixture of magnesium sulphate and primary secondary amine sorbent. In order to increase GC adoptability of patulin, derivatisation step was performed using N,O-bis-trimethylsilyl trifluoroacetamide. Method recoveries of patulin from apple juice samples ranged from 79.9% to 87.9%. Limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 0.4 and 1.3μg/L, respectively. Relative standard deviations were lower than 9.5%. The developed method has been successfully applied to the analysis of patulin in apple juice samples.