Assessment of the levels of anabolic compounds in Kuwait meat industry: optimization of a multiresidue method and the results of a preliminary survey

Kuwait, like many of the Arabian Gulf countries, imports most of its meat r equirements from a variety of countries. At present there are no controls o n the residues of anabolic agents in meat products. The present study was c arried out to make a preliminary assessment of the status of anabolic agent s in Kuwait's meat industry using the most appropriate method. The method p roposed by van Ginkle (employing immunoaffinity clean up followed by GC/MS analysis) was optimized for multiresidue analysis of large number of sample s in the shortest possible time. Six steroids and three p-agonists compound s were investigated. The recoveries of the anabolic compounds ranged from 7 7% to 99%. The method was employed to conduct a preliminary survey of Kuwai t's meat market. None of the 262 samples analyzed contained detectable leve ls of anabolic agents. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.