Anthelmintic drug residues in beef: UPLC-MS/MS method validation, European retail beef survey, and associated exposure and risk assessments

Abstract

Anthelmintic drugs are widely used to control parasitic infections in cattle. The ProSafeBeef project addressed the need for data on the exposure of European consumers of beef to potentially harmful drug residues. A novel analytical method based on matrix solid-phase dispersive extraction and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was validated for 37 anthelmintic drugs and metabolites in muscle (assay decision limits, CCα, = 0.15–10.2 µg kg⁻¹). Seven European countries (France, Spain, Slovenia, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and Portugal) participated in a survey of retail beef purchased in local shops. Of 1061 beef samples analysed, 26 (2.45%) contained detectable residues of anthelmintic drugs (0.2–171 µg kg⁻¹), none above its European Union maximum residue limit (MRL) or action level. Residues detected included closantel, levamisole, doramectin, eprinomectin, moxidectin, ivermectin, albendazole and rafoxanide. In a risk assessment applied to mean residue concentrations across all samples, observed residues accounted for less than 0.1% of the MRL for each compound. An exposure assessment based on the consumption of meat at the 99th percentile of consumption of adults in 14 European countries demonstrated that beef accounted for less than 0.02% of the acceptable daily intake for each compound in each country. This study is the first of its kind to apply such a risk-based approach to an extensive multi-residue survey of veterinary drug residues in food. It has demonstrated that the risk of exposure of the European consumer to anthelmintic drug residues in beef is negligible, indicating that regulation and monitoring is having the desired effect of limiting residues to non-hazardous concentrations.

Keywords:

• anthelmintics
• European survey
• LC-MS/MS
• veterinary drug residues
• beef
• QuEChERS
• ProSafeBeef
• risk assessment

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the European Commission for the project FOOD-CT-2006-36241 ProSafeBeef. They thank Janssen Animal Health and Pfizer Animal Health UK for donating standard materials; and the European Union Community Reference Laboratory (BVL, Berlin) for formulae for benzimidazole metabolite calculations. The authors gratefully acknowledge the efforts of the members of the European Consumers Organisations who undertook retail sampling on their own time. Sandra ten Voorde and Andre Muller of the RIVM are acknowledged for their valuable and constructive comments related to the exposure and risk assessment.