Development of a Liquid Chromatography/Amperometric Detection Method for the Determination of Multiresidue Sulfonamide Antibiotics in Meat-Based Baby Foods

Sulfonamides were oxidized at a polycrystalline gold electrode in neutral buffered phosphate medium at pH 7 and the electrochemical behavior was investigated using cyclic voltammetry technique. A liquid chromatography methodology based on the C-18 reverse phase for the simultaneous separation of nine sulfamides, was studied and optimized. The amperometric detector using a polycrystalline gold substrate as working electrode and operating under pulsed amperometric detection mode (PAD) was tested for the determination of the selected molecules. Under optimal chromatographic and amperometric conditions, the limit of detection of the investigated sulfamides are comprised between 1 mu M and 0.05 mu M and the dynamic linear range spanned generally over three orders of magnitude. A liquid extraction procedure based on the use of acetonitrile solvent was tested and proposed for the quantitative extraction of sulfonamides from homogenized meat samples. The analytical method was successful tested for the determination of sulfonamides in homogenized meat-based baby foods with reproducibility and recovery levels ranged between 5.0?% and 7.6?%. and 86?%106?%, respectively.