Antibiotic residue detection for food safety testing can screen and verify the presence of antibiotics in food samples. Antibiotic residues pose a risk to humans as they could lead to allergies or diseases, changes in the structure/function of gut microbiota, development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and accelerate global antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The global antibiotic residue test kits market is expanding rapidly and could reach $333M by 2033 due to food safety mandates by governments and regulatory authorities. Antibiotic residue detection is accomplished via 1) screening methods and 2) verification methods.
There are many different screening methods including: a) Thin-layer chromatography (TLC), which separates compounds in a sample based on their affinity for a stationary phase (like silica gel or alumina) and a mobile phase (a solvent); b) Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA ), an immunoassay for detecting a wide variety of antibiotics via binding between an antibody and antigen with an enzme acting as a label to signal the presence of the target; c) d) microbial assay such as agar diffusion, vial assays, and turbidimetric methods; e) Biosensor (device that detect substances by converting them into a quantifiable signal and use immobilized biological components like enzymes, antigens, antibodies, aptamers or molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPS) or even the organism itself as a signal (cells, tissues, organelles) to bind to target antibiotics.
Verification methods to confirm and quantify residues include the following technologies: a) High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), an analytical method using a flow of a mobile phase through a column packed with a stationary phase for detection and quantification; b) Liquid Chromatography tandom mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) which combines liquid chromatography with two mass spectrometers in seqence which first separates the compounds via liquid chromatrography and then analyzes them using mass spectrometry via fragmentation and identifying their product ions; c) Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) whereby gas chromatography is used to separate the compounds based on their volatility and interaction with a stationary phase, and then passed to the mass spectometry step which ionizes the compounds and measures their mass-to-charge ratio.
Many different antibiotics can be detected including including beta-lactams, tetracyclines, macrolides, aminoglycosides, fluoroquinolones, fulfonamides, and nitroimidazoles.
One of our customers (Feng et al, 2024) has developed a novel method to quickly and simultaneously extract and purify Bacitracin compounds to detect Bacitracin, Bacitracin Zinc, and Bacitracin methylene disalicylate in animal feed. By combining solid-phase extraction (SPE) with ultra-performance liquid tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) they were able to simultaneously extract and purify these compounds.
For Pirlimycin residue detection, our highly pure Pirlimycin Hydrochloride can be used which is compatible with both qualitative and quantitative residue detection methods, per our Press Release.
We invite you to explore our website for other compounds that can be used as anaytical reference standards in your food testing workflows, such as Doxycycline, Gentamicin, Erthromycin and more, and we also have convenient ReadyMade™ solution formats of these popular antibiotics to choose from.
References
Feng Xu, Jiayong Yu, Yinliang Wu (2024) Optimal conditions for determination of bacitracin, bacitracin binc and bacitracin bethylene Disalicylate in animal feed by ultra-performance liquid tandem mass spectrometry. J. Chromatog. B 1243: 124234. Link.
Lu N, Chen J, Rao Z, Guo B, Xu Y (2023) Recent advances of biosensors for detection of multiple antibiotics. Biosensors (Basel). 13(9):850 Link
Navrátilová P et al (2024) Screening methods for antimicrobial residues in the dairy chain-The past and the present. Antibiotics (Basel). 13(11):1098 Link
Widiasih DA et al (2024) Rapid testing of antibiotic residues to increase food safety awareness of animal origin. Vet World. 17(5):1177-1183 Link
Antibiotic Residue Test Kits Market. Fact.MR. Link