Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
method gave high interferences with matrix compounds and had a low
sensitivity. The use of chemiluminescence (CL) combined with flow injection
(FI) for the analysis of nitrofuran residues in animal feed samples has been
reported [147]. There is no doubt that the combination of sensitive CL
detection together with the FI procedure could improve the performance of
this technique substantially for the determination of feed samples. It obviously
shows the advantages of instrument simplicity (no monochromator required),
rapidity in signal detection (normally 0.1-10s), sensitivity, selectivity and ease
of use, over the other detection systems.
Liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation tandem mass spectrometry
(LC-ESIMS/MS) was developed for determination of nitrofuran compounds
in feeds, eggs [8, 54], their metabolites in muscle tissue [55], chicken meat
[117] and other matrixes [52, 116, 118 and 119]. This is the method of choice
for the qualitative and quantitative determination of the nitrofuran metabolites
in biological samples.
11.
C
ONCLUDING
R
EMARKS
The detrimental effect of nitrofurans upon human health has resulted in
their complete ban in the EU as feedingstuff additives or in the treatment of
food producing animals. However, even if somewhat contradictory, they are
still used for the oral treatment of cholera or in topical application and in
infected burns, just to quote two examples. The main problem associated to
ingestion of nitrofurans is that the respective metabolites bound to tissues, and
have potential carcinogenic and genotoxic properties.
The ban on these products, to be effective, included all imported food
related products. These products may have origin in countries for which the
within border use is, partially or totally, allowed, resulting in various concerns
pertaining to the dangers of cross contamination.
Legislation is strict, but it requires accurate methods to be enforced. One
of the reasons for the so-called ―nitrofuran crisis‖ is that nitrofuran levels
cannot be directly determined as nitrofurans themselves, instead resort to the
respective metabolite residues is required. The FoodBRAND project promoted
both instrumental and methodological development. Suddenly, people became
aware that high levels of nitrofurans were present in a variety of food products,
imported or not, including poultry products.
With LC-MS/MS method of analysis, laboratorial control of the presence
of nitrofurans and metabolites in feed and food samples becomes valid and
