The conventional apple juice had patulin ranging from 244 micrograms per liter up to 3993 micrograms per liter. On the other hand, the organic apple juice had patulin at rates up to 45,000 micrograms per liter. This study suggests that the use of artificial pesticides and concentration of patulin are inversely correlated. Readers should not take this as an indictment of organic food but rather an attempt to force them into looking at these issues from a comparative risk perspective. There is no absolutely safe food supply.
Risks are everywhere.
Our job as intelligent consumers is to minimize those risks, and that will only happen with greater information about the risks in conventional and organic foods. The juice derived from apples naturally grown was found to contain much more than ten times the concentration of patulin found in juice from apples commercially grown, sprayed, etc. This time it's Greek that provides the combining form, myco, and it means fungus. So, fungi are the sources of the toxins patulin and aflatoxin, referred to by Prof. Lovejoy. Last month, we wrote about toxic algae that do not harm certain shellfish, but when eaten by other fish, or by man, they are poisoned from the pass-along.