Development of Immunoaffinity Sample-Purification for GC–MS Analysis of Ractopamine in Swine Tissue

A method combining immunoaffinity chromatography with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) has been established for determination of ractopamine residues in swine liver and urine. After clean-up on an immunoaffinity chromatography column, GC–MS analysis revealed recovery from blank swine liver and urine fortified at 2.5–20 ng g−1 (ng mL−1 for urine), respectively, was 68.2–78.6 and 76.2–83.1%. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.5 ng g−1 (or ng mL−1) and 2.0 ng g−1 (or ng mL−1), respectively. The procedure was used for analysis of ractopamine residues in samples of swine liver and urine in which the levels were unknown. The amounts detected were 9–216 ng g−1 (ng mL−1).