Investigation of antibiotic residues in packed and unpacked

Milk is a main component of the healthy diet for 6 billion people. In addition to milk, many dairy products such as cream, yogurt, butter, cheese and kefir have been manufactured and consumed in all around the world. For this reason, there are many investigations and studies about the effect of milk and dairy products on human health. In modern farming system for dairy, antimicrobial drugs are used for both prophylactic and therapeutic purposes. Pencillins, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines and sulphonamides were frequently used in lactating animals, which led to presence of their residues in milk. Drugs are generally used to support the animal health, for treatment of the infection and to make a better production. Mastitis is one of the main problems that leads to use antibiotics in livestock. In our study, totally 80 yoghurt samples were studied. 40 of them were opened and other 40 were packaged. These samples were studied as qualitative analysis by MiRA test; Beta lactam ELISA test kit also performed quantitative antibiotic residue tests. As a result, all samples were found negative (%100). In despite of the antibiotic residue problem in milk and dairy products still continues in worldwide, the beta lactam levels in the yoghurts we studied were under the acceptable limits. However, these studies should be extended with more examples and dairy products should be routinely analyzed in terms of hygiene criteria. Because not only antibiotic residues, but also food substances such as hormones, mycotoxins, pesticides, heavy metals must be examined for various pollutants. Keywords: Yoghurt, Antibiotic, Beta-Lactam, Elisa, Dairy