Extended coverage of veterinary drug residues in food by LC-HRMS to ensure food compliance and prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance

Abstract

This study investigated the feasibility to monitor ca. 400 veterinary drug residues in various foodstuffs by a single method. For this, a generic QuEChERS-based approach was applied for sample preparation while liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) was considered as detection technique. The LC-HRMS based method was eventually found suitable to screen for 353 parent compounds and marker residues in raw materials of animal sources (dairy-, meat-, fish-, egg-, and animal by-products), but also in related processed ingredients and end commercialized items. The screening approach was fully validated according to the European Guidelines in 70 samples, ending with false positive- and false negative rates below 5 %. Simultaneously, quantitative method performances were found acceptable in terms of recovery (70–120 % range) and precision (<20 %) for 184 out of the 353 compounds. A set of 114 samples originating from Europe, Asia, USA, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia, were subsequently analyzed to collect occurrence and quantitative data. The survey highlighted a high incidence of Antiparasitics (Benzimidazoles in eggs and Coccidiostats in poultry samples), though only one poultry sample for monensin (22 µg kg−1) exceeded the Maximum Residue Level set at 10 µg kg−1 by the European Union. The presented LC-HRMS approach was complemented with a dedicated LC-MS/MS method to improve quantitative measurements of such recurringly found Coccidiostats but also to achieve enhanced sensitivity for Macrocylic lactones.