DART mass spectrometry: A rapid tool for the identification of feed additives containing coccidiostats as active substances

Feed additives require a premarket authorisation prior to their use in the European Union (EU). For the group of coccidiostats, the EU regulations authorising these products include specifications for these substances and the major components of the feed additive formulations. Feed business operators can only use feed additives that meet these criteria. The traceability of these products is supported by the allocation of specific identification numbers that need to be printed on the feed additive label along with other information. In the present study, Direct Analysis in Real Time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) is applied to investigate the correct characterisation of feed additives that contain coccidiostats as active substances. The results of the study demonstrated that this technique allows an unequivocal identification of the active substances in the feed additive formulations. In addition, two feed additives containing the same coccidiostat but different excipients could be correctly classified according to their composition. The method protocol is very simple and comprises two steps, namely the extraction of the feed additives with an organic solvent and the subsequent measurement with the DART-MS. For the correct classification of the formulations, the use of chemometric tools applied on the MS spectra turned out to be quite useful.

VON HOLST Christoph;  CHEDIN Mostafa;  KAKLAMANOS Georgios;  ALONSO ALBARRACÍN Diego;  VINCENT Ursula; 

2022-12-01

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

JRC125883

1944-0049 (online),   

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19440049.2021.2012598,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC125883,   

10.1080/19440049.2021.2012598 (online),