Original scientific paper
FOOD SAFETY IS AN IMPORTANT PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE: CHLORAMPHENICOL RESIDUES DETERMINATION BY LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY TANDEM MASS SPECTROMETRY (LC-MS/MS) IN HONEY
Adela Krivohlavek
orcid.org/0000-0003-0588-934X
; Andrija Stampar Teaching Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Irena Žuntar
orcid.org/0000-0002-6793-6263
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Zagreb, Croatia
Martina Ivešić
; Andrija Stampar Teaching Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivana Mandić Andačić
; Andrija Stampar Teaching Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Sandra Šikić
; Andrija Stampar Teaching Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Background: Honey is used for nutritional, medicinal and industrial purposes and antibiotic residues may harm its quality and
constitute a danger to human health. The broad spectrum antibiotic chloramphenicol (CAP) was used for curative purposes in
veterinary medicine, but is now forbidden in European Union (EU) because of its many serious side effects (e.g. aplastic anaemia,
grey syndrome, severe bone marrow depression and hypersensitivity).
The aim of this study was to facilitate analyses of the quality and safety of Croatian honey distributed to whole European Union
market; an assessment that has not previously been made.
Subjects and methods: CAP in honey was qualifying and quantifying by validated liquid chromatography tandem mass
spectrometry with negative electrospray ionisation method (LC-MS/MS). The target antibiotic was separated on chromatographic
column Zorbax SB C18 (150 mm × 2.1 mm, 3.5 μm) with a gradient elution using acetonitrile - 0.1% formic acid mobile phase at a
flow rate of 0.3 mL/min, with column temperature 35 oC for CAP and 5D-CAP as internal standard. Homogenised honey samples
were diluted with acetate buffer solution and extracted on Oasis Hydrophilic-Lipophilic-Balanced (HLB) sorbents. The method was
used to analyse 280 domestic honey samples collected throughout Croatia between 2005.–2013.
Results: Recoveries of the method for real (acacia, chestnut, linden and flower) honey samples were 102% with RSD 8.4%. The
value CCα and CCß were 0.09 and 0.12 μg/kg, respectively. Results showed only three subsequent positive detections (1.1%) of CAP
in honey.
Conlusions: Analysed honey samples from Croatia showed good quality and safety what is the one of the main objective in
consumer health policy in EU.
Keywords
antibiotics; chloramphenicol; honey; liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)
Hrčak ID:
265291
URI
Publication date:
23.12.2014.
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