Determination of thiamphenicol, florfenicol and florfenicol amine residues in poultry meat and pork via ASE-UPLC-FLD

Abstract A method of accelerated solvent extraction coupled with ultra-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (ASE-UPLC-FLD) for the simultaneous detection of thiamphenicol, florfenicol and florfenicol amine residues in poultry meats (chicken muscle, duck muscle and goose muscle) and pork was developed and optimized. Samples were extracted with ASE using ethyl acetate:aqueous ammonia (98:2,V/V) as the extractant and purified with n-hexane saturated with ethyl acetate. Then, the samples were analyzed by UPLC-FLD. The excitation wavelength and emission wavelength of the fluorescence detector were 233 nm and 284 nm, respectively. The parameters of the optimized method were validated according to the requirements of the European Union and the Food and Drug Administration. The recoveries of the three analytes from poultry meats and pork at the limit of quantification (LOQ), 0.5 MRL (maximum residue limit), 1.0 MRL and 2.0 MRL were 80.80–98.35%, the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were less than 4.63%, and the intraday and interday RSDs were 2.22–5.54% and 2.42–6.08%, respectively. The limits of detection (LODs) and the LOQs were 1.0–4.2 μg/kg and 3.0–11.4 μg/kg, respectively. The new method was successfully applied for the quantitative determination of thiamphenicol, florfenicol and florfenicol amine residues in 40 poultry meat and pork samples from local supermarkets.