Meat safety: II Residues and contaminants

This chapter reviews the various aspects of chemical contamination of meat and meat products covering the major groups of residues and contaminants, such as veterinary drugs, pesticides, mycotoxins, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals. The properties, occurrence, sources, and legal framework of each group of contaminants are described. Special attention was paid to the issue of pesticide and veterinary drug residues in meat, which is tightly linked to the intensive agricultural and livestock breeding practices, as well as to the presence of emerging contaminants in meat and meat products due to environmental contamination, cultivation practices, or production processes. When present above certain levels, these substances could pose a severe threat to human health. Current and future analytical strategies are also summarized, and recent developments in sample preparation and principles, applications, and future perspectives of chromatographic-mass spectrometric techniques are highlighted. Finally, a comprehensive overview of published applications of multiresidue analysis in meat and meat products combining GC-MS, LC-MS, HRMS, and tandem MS methods with generic sample preparation methodologies is presented.