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.