FT-NIR coupled to chemometric method to discriminate antimicrobial and antiparasitic residues in milk

Abstract

Introduction: Milk is one of the most consumed foods by humans. Proteins, vitamins, fat, carbohydrates and minerals are part of its composition and play important roles in human nutrition. The practice of adulteration in milk is old and is still present today in several countries, including Brazil. In order to obtain a higher profit, some suppliers usually add to the milk: water, starch, citrate, urea, caustic soda, sodium chloride, sucrose, whey, melamine and other components. However, there is still another problem, that of contamination of milk by veterinary medicines. These can cause damage to the health of the consumer and damage to the production of its derivatives. Objective: The present work proposes a methodology that allows to quickly detect the presence of residues of veterinary medicines in milk, within the maximum residue limit of each drug. Methods: The use of spectroscopy in the near infrared by Fourier transform associated with the analysis of main components was used. Infrared spectroscopy has been used not only for the authenticity of dairy products, but to determine their quality. Results: It was possible to detect residues of penicillin, oxytetracycline and enrofloxacin, and also of the antiparasitic ivermectin in the milk samples. Conclusion: The methodology fastly and accurately detected the residues of the analyzed drugs, even in very low concentrations. Thus, it is an option to other existing ones, already used for this purpose.