Determination of 15 β-lactam antibiotics in pork muscle by matrix solid-phase dispersion extraction (MSPD) and ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

• 15 β-lactam antibiotics were tested by UPLC-MS/MS.
• Matrix solid-phase dispersion was used for the preparation of pork muscles.
• The developed method was accurate and reproducible.

An UPLC–MS/MS method based on matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) was developed for simultaneous determination of 15 β-lactams in pork muscle. Muscle tissue was blended with Oasis HLB adsorbent. A column made from the sorbent/muscle tissue matrix was washed with hexane, after which β-lactams was eluted with acetonitrile/water (50:50, v/v) both containing 0.1% formic acid. The final extract was evaporated, and reconstituted into acetonitrile/water (10:90, v/v) for the analysis of UPLC-MS/MS. The correlation coefficient (r2) with each matrix-matched calibration curve is higher than 0.99. Limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) of β-lactams were ranged from 0.02 to 0.63 μg kg−1 and 0.07–0.97 μg kg−1, respectively. At the fortified levels, mean recoveries of all compounds were ranged from 92 to 111%, and the RSDs were lower than 12%. The method was accurate and reproducible, being successfully applied to the monitoring of 15 β-lactams in pork muscles obtained from the Chinese market.