Simultaneous determination of 5-nitroimidazoles and nitrofurans in pork by high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A simple and specific method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of four 5-nitroimidazoles and their two corresponding metabolites and four nitrofurans in pork. The sample preparation procedure was based on a simple solvent extraction/derivatization combined with solid-phase extraction (SPE) cleanup. The target compounds were identified and quantitatively determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI/MS/MS) operated in multiple reaction monitoring mode. The overall corrected recoveries ranged between 93 and 106%, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 7–13% for the entire procedure. The detection limits of the method for the 10 compounds under study ranged from 0.01 to 0.2 μg/kg.