Determination of ractopamine residue in animal derived foods using electromembrane extraction followed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A simple, sensitive and accurate analysis method based on electromembrane extraction (EME) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed for the extraction and determination of ractopamine residue in animal derived foods for the first time. Several parameters that affecting the extraction efficiency of EME were optimized, including the type of supported liquid membrane (SLM), chemical composition of acceptor solution, extraction voltage and extraction time. Under the optimum conditions, the developed EME-LC-MS/MS method obtained a wide linear range (1–1000 ng/g), low limit of detection (0.07–0.11 ng/g), satisfactory recoveries of 80.3–108.8%, and high precision (5.5–7.9%). The developed method showed advantages of green, fast mass transfer rate, excellent clean-up ability, high accuracy and high sensitivity, which demonstrated its great potential for monitoring the illegal use of hazardous substances in foods.