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.

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 0-200μgkg-1 . The LOD and LOQ were 5 and 10μgkg-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.