In addition to their function as veterinary drugs, antibiotics can be used as growth promoters in livestock breeding. As a consequence of incorrect or illegal use, drug residues in food of animal origin such as meat, milk or eggs can remain.

Because of the potentially carcinogenic or toxic properties of antibiotics the consumption of contaminated food bears a health risk. Additionally, the inappropriate use of antibiotics in animal husbandry and food production is suspected to promote multi-resistance of pathogen bacteria. For these reasons. Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) and monitoring programs have been established in many countries.

For some industrial branches, antibiotic residues bear an additional economic risk, as they inhibit biotechnological production processes involving microorganisms. RIDACOM presents test systems for antibiotic residue analysis in food and feed.

• RIDASCREEN®ELISAs allow specific quantitative analysis of single antibiotics or antibiotic groups by immunological antibody-antigen recognition and measurement by microtiter-plate photometer.
• EASI-EXTRACT

  ®

  and RIDA®

  immunoaffinity columns offer improved sample clean-up and concentration of antibiotics from complex food matrices prior to analysis with ELISA, HPLC or LC-MS/MS.

• Premi Test®, based on the growth inhibition of spores by antibiotics, offers a simple and cost-effective qualitative screening for a broad spectrum of antibiotics.