Assessment of ractopamine in meat and bone meal through LC-MS/MS using solid phase extraction (SPE).

Ractopamine (RCT) used as feed additive acts metabolically to decrease fat content contributing to a lean carcass. However, RCT is not broadly accepted worldwide but limited to stringent rules imposed by some countries. To assure human consumption safety, governments are encouraging research institutions to develop sensitive methods to accurately detect and quantify RCT. Yet, little is known about RCT concentration in raw materials such as meat and bone meal (MBM). The effectiveness of a previously developed method for RCT analysis was tested to determine sources of RCT contamination in MBM and discern from potential overestimation in feed.