Workflow for the identification of ‘unknown’ substances in animal feed

Samenvatting

Regularly biological effects or instrumental signals are observed in animal feed samples that cannot be explained by the presence of a chemical
substance that is included in targeted mass spectrometric methods. In order to identify the compound responsible for the biological effect or
unexpected signal (the unknown substance), a workflow is developed based on multi-disciplinary research. This includes analytical chemistry
(mass spectrometry, NMR), biochemistry (biosensors, bioassays, DNA analysis), physical chemistry (microscopy) and knowledge of bioactive
compounds. The workflow was assessed using an artificial (left) and a real case (right).