Thermal degradation of chloramphenicol in model solutions, spiked tissues and incurred samples

This study investigated the thermal degradation of a veterinary drug, chloramphenicol, in model solutions (water), as well as in spiked and incurred mussel tissues to understand its fate in the food supply chain. Thermal degradation kinetics followed a first-order model in water (e.g. degradation rate: 0.0018-0.0025 min^-1 at 100 °C). After 1 h at 100 °C, the percentage degradation in spiked tissues (28.1 ± 7.1%) was significantly different (p < .05) from the values in water (14.2 ± 1.6%) and incurred mussel tissues (19.0 ± 4.1%). Using liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution accurate mass tandem mass spectrometry, the resulting degradation products of chloramphenicol were identified in water, spiked and incurred tissues, and were all different. Therefore, although the use of water models and spiking food samples may provide some information, our data confirm that "incurred models" should be systematically implemented to provide reliable information about veterinary drug residue stability for food safety risk assessments.