Comprehensive analysis of toxics (pesticides, veterinary drugs and mycotoxins) in food by UHPLC-MS

This review provides an overview of current methods, based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass-spectrometry analyzers (UHPLC-MS), for the determination of organic contaminants and residues in food. Although most of the methods mainly focus on the analysis of one type of compound (e.g., pesticides, veterinary drugs or mycotoxins), current methods are aimed at the simultaneous determination of several families of contaminants and/or residues. These methods increase sample throughput and the capabilities of routine laboratories, because of the advantages provided by the UHPLC technique. For UHPLC-MS, generic extraction procedures can be applied, allowing the simultaneous extraction of compounds with different physicochemical properties.