The development and validation of a rapid method for the determination of antimicrobial agent residues in milk and meat using ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole - Orbitrap mass spectrometry

A new multi-class method has been developed for the identification and quantification of the residues of 26 antibiotics from different classes (sulfonamides, macrolides, tetracyclines, penicillins, and quinolones) in milk and meat by ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled to hybrid quadrupole - high resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry (UPLC-qOrbitrap). The sample preparation included extraction of two analytical portions with acetonitrile and 5% trichloroacetic acid, respectively, followed by centrifugation and filtration. The method was validated over three days at 50% of MRL (maximum residue limit) set in the European Union. Experiments on spiked meat and milk samples showed that the average recovery of the antibiotics ranged from 83% to 112%, and the coefficients of variation were between 8.9% and 39%.