Development and validation of a high-throughput method for determination of nine fluoroquinolones residues in muscle of different animal species by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry with low temperature clean up

- A method for determination of 9 fluoroquinolones in bovine, swine, poultry and fish is reported.
- Sample preparation is performed in 3 simple steps, without the need of complex process/equipment.
- Low temperature clean up was used to perform the purification of extracts.
- LC-MS/MS was used to carry out quantitative and confirmatory analysis.
- The proposed method is simple, easy, and adequate for routine analysis.

This work describes the development and validation of a quantitative and confirmatory method to determination of nine fluoroquinolones residues in poultry, bovine, swine and fish muscle using LC-MS/MS. Sample preparation was based in a fast solvent extraction with acetonitrile with 1% of formic acid followed by a low-temperature clean up procedure and centrifugation, without further steps. The recoveries ranged between 79% and 115%. The concentration work range was 0-200 μg kg−1. The LOD and LOQ were 5 and 10 μg kg−1, respectively. This high-throughput method was reliable for identification and confirmation of nine relevant compounds in food-producing animal tissues. Validation procedure was performed according the Directive 2002/657/EC criteria and the method showed fitness to purpose in terms of precision and reproducibility as well as for the other performance parameters.