Method for determining the tetracycline group in tomatoes

Various crop products may contain residues of veterinary drugs that end up in soil fertilized with livestock byproduct - manure, used in agriculture, especially by farmers to increase yield and quality. Regular monitoring of products not only of animal, but also of plant origin is necessary in order to control residual amounts of tetracycline group anitibiotics. This work presents a quick and simple analytical method for the determination of tetracyclic antibiotics (oxytetracycline, tetracycline, chlortetracycline and doxycycline) in vegetables - tomatoes. The method of high-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection is one of the most sensitive and selective methods for determining organic impurities in food products. The method presented by the authors has been successfully tested and is effective for the quantitative determination of tetracyclines in tomatoes. Recovery of antibiotics from spiked tomato samples ranged from 89.6 % to 108.1 %.