Effect of diverse cooking treatments on enrofloxacin residues and its metabolites in chicken tissues by LC-MS

Abstract

Although safety delays are established in the introduction into the market of the products derived from medicated animals, residues of drugs and their metabolites may remain in the edible meat and reach the food chain. In this context, the aim of this work is to evaluate the effect of common domestic cooking procedures, such as boiling (100 °C) and grilling (250 °C), on the fate of enrofloxacin (ENR) residues and its metabolites, present in liver and muscle tissues of chicken previously medicated with enrofloxacin. Although it is generally accepted a thermal degradation for enrofloxacin when cooking, a decrease in content, unaffected or even increased content is observed depending on the considered metabolite. This latter observation can be the result of either the actual thermal degradation of a structurally close precursor or an artifact resulting from the thermal modification of the matrix (muscle or liver). Nevertheless, it is clear that their global content is considerably low with respect to the remaining content of the administered ENR.