Identification of Residual Traces of Antibiotics in Food

Due to the widespread use of veterinary drugs and antibiotics in animal husbandry, one of the most critical problems in ensuring food safety is the presence of residual antibiotic traces in animal products. Concentrations of such traces in food products pose a danger to both humans and the environment as a whole. Irrational use of antibiotics in agriculture stimulates resistant bacteria that can cause infectious diseases in humans and animals that cannot be treated with modern drugs. Due to the potential risk to human health in many countries, maximum permissible limits for the content of residual traces of antibiotics are regulated. This review aimed at investigating the recent publications in the field of identification of residual antibiotic traces in food. Various types of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) combined with solid-phase extraction were mainly used for the quantitative determination of analytes. Methods of enzyme immunoassay, capillary electrophoresis, and infrared spectroscopy with Fourier transform, biosensor, and fluorescence analysis methods are also presented. It is shown that the development of new susceptible, accurate, simple, and cost-effective methods for the determination traces of antibiotics in food remains an urgent task and is highly demanded in the modern world.