FOOD TESTING - APPLICATION NOTEBOOK

Importance of the topic

Solid phase extraction (SPE) and dispersive SPE (QuEChERS) are fundamental for isolating veterinary drug residues in complex food matrices. Monitoring these compounds is essential for ensuring food safety, regulatory compliance, and public health.

Objectives and overview

• Develop robust protocols for extraction and clean-up of veterinary drug residues in meat, milk and honey.
• Apply SPE and QuEChERS integrated solutions for multi-residue analysis of diverse compound classes.
• Implement UPLC/MS/MS detection for high sensitivity and specificity across β2-agonists, antibiotics, and steroid hormones.

Methodology and instrumentation

• Sample preparation: acidified organic extraction, enzymatic hydrolysis, protein precipitation and use of C18, Florisil, MCX and HLB sorbents.
• QuEChERS dispersive kits with AOAC/CEN salts and PSA/C18 clean-up for streamlined workflows.
• SPE cartridges: Oasis HLB, MCX, Accell Plus QMA, Normal- and Reversed-Phase media for selective retention or pass-through strategies.
• Chromatography: Waters ACQUITY UPLC and HPLC systems equipped with CSH, BEH, HSS, XBridge, Atlantis and SunFire columns under optimized gradients.
• Detection: Triple quadrupole mass spectrometers (Xevo TQ-S, Quattro Premier, Quattro micro) with electrospray ionization and multiple reaction monitoring transitions.

Main results and discussion

• Recovery rates for spiked analytes ranged from 58% to over 110% with relative standard deviations generally below 15% at ppb levels.
• Limits of quantification in the low-ppb to sub-ppb range achieved for nitrofurans, β2-agonists, aminoglycosides, macrolides, fluoroquinolones and hormones.
• Tandem SPE and QuEChERS clean-up effectively suppressed matrix interferences to enable reproducible, high-throughput quantification in meat, milk and honey.

Benefits and practical applications

• Validated methods support regulatory monitoring of banned and controlled veterinary drugs to protect consumers.
• Commercial SPE and QuEChERS kits reduce method development time, ensure reproducibility and lower laboratory costs.
• High-throughput capacity meets the demands of QA/QC and industrial laboratories for routine screening.
• Remote diagnostic and performance qualification services facilitate continuous compliance and system uptime.

Future trends and possibilities

• Integration of ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry for non-target screening and emerging contaminant detection.
• Automated online SPE and microextraction techniques to reduce manual handling and solvent consumption.
• Green sample preparation strategies with minimal solvent volumes and sustainable sorbent materials.
• Artificial intelligence–driven method development, real-time data processing and predictive analytics in food safety testing.

Conclusion

The integration of advanced SPE strategies, QuEChERS workflows and UPLC/MS/MS analysis provides sensitive, reproducible and high-throughput detection of veterinary drug residues across diverse food matrices, reinforcing food safety and regulatory compliance.

Reference

• Waters Application Notes: 720004512EN, 720004440EN, 720001015EN, 720004144EN, 720004089EN.
• Jin Yu-E, Guo De-Hua, Zheng Ye, Wang Guo-Quan. Determination of β2-agonists by LC/MS-MS. Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention.