Antibiotic residues in honey: A review on analytical methods by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract Honey is a complex and popular food product rich in sugars, vitamins, and minerals. Determination of antibiotic residues in honey is essential because the use of antibiotics has increased significantly in recent decades due to the growing need for food production. The concentration of antibiotic residues in honey is usually at trace levels, and thus liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) with its high sensitivity and selectivity has been increasingly applied for its quantitative analysis. In this review, common honey sample preparations and separation and detection methods appeared in the last ten years are summarized. Sugar-bound/protein-bound antibiotics are discussed in detail. We also summarized the representative matrix effect of antibiotics via LC/MS/MS. These are unseen in the chromatogram but can have deleterious effects on the method's accuracy and sensitivity for the determination of antibiotics in honey.