Abstract:
Recent applications of liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry ( LC- MS/MS) in the area of residue analysis of antimicrobials in food were summarized.The main attention in this review was focused on the recent advances of LC-MS/MS in detecting the most widely used classes of antimicrobials, such as β- lactams, tetracyclines, macrolides, aminoglycosides, amphenicols, sulfonamides, quinolones and nitrofurans. Meanwhile, multi-class antimicrobials residue analysis in a single procedure by means of LC-MS/MS was also stated, with the quadrupole in tandem with time- of- flight mass spectrometry system as an ideal tool. At last, the development trends of applications of LC-MS/MS for analyzing antimicrobials residue in food were proposed.