Use of high-resolution mass spectrometry for veterinary drug multi-residue analysis

National and international food and feed safety authorities are shifting from routine-to risk-based monitoring. Risk-based monitoring requires flexibility in the scope of analytes, matrices, and sampling. Also, risk-based monitoring implies a desire for retrospective analysis using different scope(s) to follow trends, identify new food safety threats, and monitor the effectiveness of policy interventions. The current availability of sensitive and accurate high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) fits within this approach. This writing reviews the applicability of HRMS techniques for food control laboratories in the analysis of veterinary medicinal products and hormones in food, using HRMS and legislative background. Different HRMS measurement and data evaluation strategies are identified and discussed. Among them, routine screening and confirmation, suspect screening, semi-untargeted analysis (common mass pattern search), metabolite and degradation product identification, profiling for deviating samples, physiological markers or treatments, and identification of unknowns can be found. The food safety competent authorities could shift from methods with predefined scope to real risk-based monitoring by implementing HRMS for routine food and feed analysis.