Sodium dehydroacetate levels in chicken tissues

Sodium dehydroacetate (Na-DHA), which has preservative and antimicrobial effects, is used as food and feed additive. However, there is little information on the Na-DHA levels in foods derived from animals fed Na-DHA. In this study, an HPLC-based method with methanol and 0.02% ammonium acetate (31:69, v/v) as the mobile phase was developed to determine Na-DHA residues in chicken muscle, liver, kidney, and skin fat tissues. Forty-eight yellow-plumage broiler chickens were administered 200 mg/kg Na-DHA in their feed for 30 d and sacrificed at different time points. In this study, the limit of detection was 0.08 mg/kg and the limit of quantification was 0.2 mg/kg. The residue concentration of Na-DHA in chicken tissues was <0.7 mg/kg. The elimination half-times of Na-DHA were 5.86 d for kidney tissues, 6.02 d for liver tissues, 8.88 d for muscle tissues, and 10.38 d for skin fat tissues. The residue levels of Na-DHA were lower than dehydroacetic acid in chicken tissues in our previous work, implying less risk of Na-DHA residue in chicken tissues compared to its acid.