Veterinary drug residues in meat: Concerns and rapid methods for detection

The use of substances having hormonal or thyreostatic action as well as β-agonists is banned in the European Union. However, sometimes forbidden drugs may be added to feeds for illegal administration to farm animals for promoting increased muscle development or increased water retention and thus obtain an economical benefit. The result is a fraudulent overweight of meat but, what is worse, residues of these substances may remain in meat and may pose a real threat to the consumer either through exposure to the residues, transfer of antibiotic resistance or allergy risk. This has exerted a great concern among European consumers. The control of the absence of these forbidden substances in animal foods and feeds is regulated in the European Union by Directive96/23/EC on measures to monitor certain substances and residues in live animals and animal products. Analytical methodology, including criteria for identification and confirmation, for the monitoring of compliance was also given in Decisions 93/256/EEC and 93/257/EEC. More recently, Decision 2002/657/EC provided rules for the analytical methods to be used in testing of official samples. A crucial step is the screening of veterinary drug residues in live animals, feeds and animal products in view of the remarkable number of samples and large variety of residues to be analysed. In recent years, different rapid methods having easy performance, high sensitivity and high throughput have been proposed and are being extensively used. These methods as well as other new methods are reviewed in this manuscript.