Assessment of veterinary drugs present in pork kidney from a Midwest US retail market

A total of 1040 pork kidneys were purchased from 4 retail stores located in a Midwestern US town and screened for antibiotics with the Charm-KIS? screening test. Six samples (0.6%) tested positive with the Charm-KIS?. Sixty-five samples from each retail location and the 18 Charm-KIS? positive or ‘caution’ samples were also subjected to ELISA to determine the presence of commonly used veterinary drugs including flunixin, ractopamine, sulfamethazine, and/or tetracycline of the 278 samples assessed by ELISA, flunixin, ractopamine, sulfamethazine, and tetracycline residues were found to be 0%, 22%, 4%, and 10% ELISA positive respectively, and had greater than limit of quantitation concentrations as measured by LC-MS/MS. All residue levels determined by LC-MS/MS were well below US tolerances, regardless of analyte. These findings suggest that veterinary drugs are being used in accordance with US regulations and that veterinary drug residues in pork do not pose a health concern to US consumers.