MIP Technologies and Supelco Launch a New SPE Product For the Selective Extraction of Nitroimidazoles From Food Samples

MIP Technologies AB and Supelco, a division of Sigma-Aldrich, recently launched a new molecularly imprinted polymer SupelMIPTM SPE product for the selective extraction of nitroimidazoles.

"This new SupelMIP product, one of many that will appear this year, has arisen from our initial work with the Nestlé Research Centre in Lausanne with whom we published a scientific article on this topic," said Anthony Rees, CEO of MIP Technologies. "The excellent follow up work by the Supelco team has generated a valuable product that maintains the high performance standards of the existing SupelMIP sample preparation products."

This SPE product was developed for confirmation and quantitation of nitroimidazole residues in food samples. The SPE phase has been developed for multi-residue extraction of nitroimidazoles and has been validated for dimetridazole (DMZ), ipronidazole (IPZ), metronidazole (MNZ), and ronidazole (RNZ) and their hydroxylated metabolites (DMZOH and MNZOH).

"With recent mainstream concerns regarding food safety (e.g., melamine, acrylamide, salmonella, etc.), regulatory bodies worldwide are becoming more proactive in terms of enforcing food safety guidelines. Molecularly imprinted polymer SPE technology provides researchers with a powerful tool towards achieving lower detection limits for confirmatory analysis," said An Trinh, Product Manager of Sample Prep at Supelco.

Nitroimidazoles comprise of a group of broad-spectrum antibacterial agents with antibiotic and anticoccidial properties, which are widely used for therapeutic treatment in poultry, cattle, and farmed fish.

These drugs and their metabolites are suspected to be found in human carcinogens and mutagens. Consequently, DMZ, MNZ, and RNZ are on the European Union (EU) list of pharmacologically active substances for which no maximum residue limit can be fixed, meaning their use is forbidden in food-producing animals. IPZ has never been authorized as a veterinary drug and therefore is also considered a forbidden compound. Monitoring these substance residues at trace levels is regulated by law.

Using the new SupelMIP SPE product, nitroimidazoles were extracted from milk and egg samples (fresh eggs and egg powder) with high and reproducible recoveries. The SPE sorbents based on molecularly imprinted polymers were developed by MIP Technologies.