Antibiotics

 

 

Antibiotic residues in food of animal origin such as milk, eggs or meat represent a potential health risk to the consumer. Therefore, R-Biopharm offers a broad portfolio of different test systems for the analysis of antibiotic residues.

Definition of antibiotics

Antibiotics are naturally formed metabolites derived from fungi or bacteria. Substances that do not occur in nature and are produced by modern biotechnology and chemical synthesis are called antibiotics as well. Antibiotics are able to kill microorganisms or inhibit their growth. In human and veterinary medicine, antibiotics are therefore used as drugs for the treatment of bacterial diseases.

Origin of antibiotic residues in food

The use of antibiotics as drugs for the treatment of diseased animals is a matter of animal welfare and therefore inevitable. As a result of application failures, such as non-compliance with the statutory waiting period or abuse as antibiotic growth promoter, residues of antibiotics can occur in food of animal origin such as meat, milk or eggs.

Danger to the consumer – A risk for production process safety – Legal regulations

Due to the potentially carcinogenic and toxic properties of antibiotic residues and their allergic potential, the consumption of contaminated food establishes a direct risk for public health. Furthermore, the inappropriate use of antibiotics in animal husbandry and food production promotes the multi-drug resistance of pathogen bacteria for antibiotics used in human medicine.

Testsystems for antibiotic drug residue analysis in food & feed

RIDASCREEN® ELISA allow specific quantitative analysis of single antibiotics or antibiotic groups by immunological antibody-antigen recognition and readout by microtiter-plate photometer.

EASI-EXTRACT® Immunoaffinity Columns offer improved sample clean-up and concentration of antibiotics from complex food matrices prior to analysis with HPLC or LC-MS/MS.

PREMI®TEST, based on the growth inhibition of spores by antibiotics, offers a simple and cost-effective qualitative screening for a broad spectrum of antibiotics.