Simultaneous determination of β-agonists in pork samples using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

The misuse of β-agonists has been reported to be a potential risk to public health and is forbidden in many countries. The present study aimed to develop a simple, rapid, and reliable method for the multi-residue analysis of β-agonists including salbutamol, clenbuterol, and ractopamine in pork samples using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In the proposed method, the pretreatment procedure was shortened to reduce time-consuming and chemical usage was minimized to decrease costconsuming. Based on the LC-MS/MS experiments, linearities obtained ranged from 0.1–2 µg/kg for clenbuterol and 1–20 µg/kg for salbutamol and ractopamine, with a correlation coefficient of R2 value of >0.998. The average recoveries of clenbuterol, salbutamol, and ractopamine were 105.3%, 101.2%, and 99.4%, respectively. The limits of quantification for clenbuterol, salbutamol, and ractopamine were 0.10, 0.54, and 0.63 µg/kg, respectively. These results suggested that this proposed method can be used for rapid and sensitive detection of β-agonists in pork with a simple treatment of samples and minimized solvent usage.