Determining β-lactam antibiotics in aquaculture products by modified QuECHERS combined with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS)

Abstract

In this study, a multi-residue determination method of QuECHERS combined with UHPLC-MS/MS was developed to determine nine β-lactam antibiotics (penicillin G, amoxicillin, ampicillin, cephalexin, cefquinome, ceftiofur, cefazolin, cephapirin, cefuroxime) in aquaculture products. All the nine β-lactam antibiotics exhibited excellent linearity within the range of 2.0–200 ng/mL (cefuroxime: 5.0–200 ng/mL, r greater than 0.999), while the limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were 2.0–5.0 μg/kg and 5.0–10.0 μg/kg, respectively. The recoveries of this method in five aquaculture products ( Penaeus Orientalis , Cyprinus Carpio , Channa Argus, Aristichthys Nobilis, and Ctenopharyngodon Idella ) ranged from 85.4% to 113.3% and the intra-day and inter-day precisions (%RSDs) were less than 15%. The results suggested the feasibility of this method as a rapid, simple, and accurate approach for determining the residues of the β-lactam antibiotics in aquaculture products.