Simultaneous Determination of 17 β-Receptor Agonists in Meat by QuEChERS EMR-Lipid with Isotope Dilution-Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Objective: A method for simultaneous determination of 17 β-receptor agonists in meat was established by QuEChERS EMR-Lipid with isotope dilution-ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Methods: The samples were added to ammonium acetate buffer solution (pH5.2) and enzymatic hydrolyzed by β-glucuronidase and arysulfatase. The hydrolysates were extracted by acetonitrile containing 5% formic acid, and purified by QuEChERS EMR-Lipid. The analyses were separated by CORTECS™ UPLC^® C₁₈ chromatographic column with gradient elution using 0.1% formic acid and methanol as the mobile phase. The target compounds were monitored in scheduled MRM mode. Then the internal standard method was used for quantitative analysis. Results: The linear regression correlation coefficients for the 17 β-receptor agonists were all higher than 0.99 in the range from 0 ng/mL to 20 ng/mL. The limits of detection were 0.01~0.09 μg/kg and the limits of quantification were 0.05~0.31 μg/kg. The average recoveries at three spiked levels of 0.5, 2.0 and 5.0 μg/kg ranged from 81.7% to 111.8% with the relative standard deviations of 0.8%~10.3% (n=6). No β-receptor agonists were detected in 100 batches of fresh meat. Conclusion: The method has the advantages of simple pretreatment steps and good purification effect. It shortened enzymolysis time, improved sample detection efficiency. The internal standard method was accurate and reliable. It was suitable for simultaneous determination of β-receptor agonists in a large number of meat samples.