Dissociation mechanisms-based UHPLC Q-Orbitrap strategy for screening of cephalosporins and metabolites in shrimp

A screening method was explored for simultaneous analysis of 43 cephalosporins residues and their metabolites from four generations in shrimp utilizing a novel fully untargeted data acquisition method. Four generations of cephalosporins residues and their metabolites are extracted with online extraction simultaneously. Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole-orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry was used for to determine cephalosporins and their metabolites in ten shrimp species. Precision in terms of relative standard deviation (RSD) was under 6.3% for all compounds, and the extraction recoveries ranged from 85% to 108%. The detection capabilities ranged from 0.011 to 0.223 mg kg−1. The fully untargeted vDIA acquisition way improves both selectivity and sensitivity for the compounds at trace levels, which is beneficial for screening performance.