Fera food safety experts make use of innovative testing methods to highlight the levels of florfenicol and its major metabolites, within your food samples. We can also provide the evidence required by regulators to verify that the levels of Florfenicol within your food products are compliant.

Our analysis is accredited to ISO17025 by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and the method has been validated in accordance with the principles set out in Commission Decision 2002/657/EC (or as subsequently amended), for the majority of analyte / matrix combinations.

Regulatory limits strictly control the use of Florfenicol, with Maximum Residue Limits (MRL) being defined in Commission Regulation (EU) 37/2010 for a range of food producing species. MRLs have been set in muscle, skin / fat, liver and kidney.

Florfenicol is a wide spectrum, synthetic antibacterial substance used in aquaculture, livestock and poultry to treat disease. However, its use is prohibited in animals from which eggs or milk are produced for human consumption.

Florfenicol is known to metabolise in animal tissues after administration. The marker residue is defined in legislation as the sum of florfenicol and its metabolites, measured as florfenciol amine.

The analytical method used at Fera is based on the conversion of florfenicol and its major metabolites to florfenicol-amine using acid hydrolysis. Testing is then carried out using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS).