Degradation of amoxicillin residues in chicken meat with a combination of ozonation and ultrasound

This study aims to investigate the prevalence of amoxicillin (AMX) residues in chicken meat, as well as the influence of the ozonation process (O3) combined with ultrasound on the degradation of AMX in samples with concentrations above the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL). The AMX residues were extracted and determined by solid-phase extraction (SPE) and HPLC-with fluorescence detector. This method provided recoveries ranging from 81.9 to 96.7% at 5 to 100 µg/kg. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.9 µg/kg and quantitation (LOQ) was 1.71 µg/kg. The study found that the wings had the highest percentage of positive AMX samples (28%), followed by thighs (23.3%) and breasts (13.3%). In addition, the results showed that the percentages of samples that exceeded MRL were 16.6, 5%, and 13.3% with wings, breast, and thigh samples, respectively. Treatment by ozonation ultrasound for 15 min degraded the AMX to 68.1, 79.1, and 73.8% in wings, breast, and thigh samples, respectively. Although AMX degradation was achieved, the levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in breast samples increased during the treatment, with acceptable levels maintained until the third day, suggesting a balance between AMX degradation and product quality preservation.