Antibiotics and drugs: residue determination

Veterinary drugs pose a real risk to human health if their residues are allowed to enter the food chain. Parent drugs and their metabolites can occur in foodstuffs individually or as multicomponent mixtures with enhanced adverse effects. In order to protect the safety of the consumers, the European Union has established lists of forbidden substances, maximum residue limits for authorized drugs, and precise criteria to perform confirmation and screening analyses and to interpret the related results. This article deals with procedures and techniques applied to monitor pharmaceutical products of major concern, discussing advancements in the past 3 years and the future trends in the food safety field. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.