Determination of ionophore coccidiostats in feeding stuffs by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Part II. Application to cross-contamination levels and non-targeted feed

A fit to purpose multi-analyte method for the official control of six coccidiostats (monensin sodium, salinomycin sodium, narasin, lasalocid sodium, semduramicin sodium and maduramicin ammonium alpha) at cross-contamination concentration levels in poultry, cattle, pig and calf compound feed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) has been developed and in-house validated. The corresponding maximum levels have been recently introduced by European legislation. The method developed involved a simple extraction of the coccidiostats from the feed samples followed by centrifugation and filtration of the supernatants for all matrices. For calf feed an additional de-fattening step of the filtrated supernatants with n-hexane was necessary. The resulting supernatants were submitted to chromatographic analysis. The analytes were quantified by a modified approach of the standard additions technique applied to the extracts, hence allowing a workload comparable to matrix-matched standard calibration curves. A further simplification of this technique was reached by applying the same addition levels of the target analytes for different concentration ranging from 0.5× maximum level up to 2.5× maximum level (universal approach). The concentration independent intermediate precision expressed in terms of relative standard deviation varied between 3 and 12% (except for maduramicin ammonium alpha and semduramicin sodium up to 21%) and the recovery rates ranged from 80 to 111%, depending on the target analyte and matrix. The limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) were different for the various analyte/matrix/instrument combinations but all LOQs were in the 0.01–0.65 mg kg−1 range, hence well below the target concentrations of each analyte. Based on the obtained method performance characteristics the method is considered fit for the intended purpose.