Determination of Chloramphenicol in Honey, Shrimp, and Poultry Meat with Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry: Validation of the Method According to Commission Decision 2002/657/EC

Chloramphenicol (CAP) is an antibiotic used for the treatment of bacterial infections in human and veterinary medicine. The use of CAP was prohibited in the European Union in 1994. Control laboratories are required to use suitably validated analytical methods to check sample compliance with the regulation. A quantitative method based on liquid chromatography coupled to isotopic dilution tandem mass spectrometry was developed for the determination of chloramphenicol in honey, shrimp, and poultry meat. The experimental protocol consisted of a liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate. Separation and detection were realized, respectively, by a 2690 Waters HPLC (Milford, MA, USA) and a Micromass Triple Quadrupole mass spectrometer (Micromass, Manchester, UK), equipped with an electrospray source. The effects of mobile-phase additives on the response of LC/ESI/MS were examined. Two different HPLC columns were tested: the X-Terra from Waters and the Alltima HP C18 HL from Alltech (Deerfield, IL, USA). A validation of the method was conducted according to the EU criteria for the analysis of chloramphenicol in foods. The decision limits (CC alpha) were 0.04, 0.03, 0.07 mu g kg(-1), and the detection capabilities (CC beta) were 0.05, 0.04, 0.08 mu g kg(-1) for honey, shrimp, and poultry meat, respectively. Those values are below the minimum required performance limit set at 0.3 mu g kg(-1) by the EU and 0.1 mu g kg(-1) by Belgium. Our protocol has the advantage to propose a unique extraction method working as well for honey, shrimp, and poultry meat, contrary to similar published methods in which a different extraction method is used for each type of matrix.