Food Control 126 (2021) 108019 Available online 25 February 2021 0956-7135/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Review Rapid detection of antibiotic residues in animal products using surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy: A review Mogos Girmatsion a, b , Abdu Mahmud a, b , Bereket Abraha a, b , Yunfei Xie a , Yuliang Cheng a , Hang Yu a , Weirong Yao a , Yahui Guo a, * , He Qian a a State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, National Center for Technology Innovation on Fast Biological Detection of Grain Quality and Safety, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China b Department of Marine Food and Biotechnology, Massawa College of Marine Science and Technology, Massawa, Eritrea A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Antibiotics Residue Animal product Detection SERS ABSTRACT The use of antibiotics as veterinary drugs is a signifcant practice to maintain the well-being of farmed animals. Meanwhile, ethical violations committed during the application of the drugs by animal producers have become a major reason for contamination of animal products which in turn causes serious side effects on public health after consumption. The side effects could be severe, long-lasting, and deadly depending on their biochemical and physiologic aftermath. To prevent contaminated products from reaching the consumer, implementing rapid and effective analytical approaches beforehand is a crucial safety assurance measure. Thus, this paper frstly explores six predominant groups of antibiotics that are commonly exploited as veterinary drugs, typically penicillins, tetracyclines, amphenicols, aminoglycosides, fuoroquinolones as well triarylmethane dyes. Then, it addresses Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-based detection of the aforementioned drugs in two major cate- gories of animal products; milk, which is the major product of the dairy industry and meat products. The objective is to acquaint readers with various approaches of SERS that have been designed and developed to examine individual drugs from each group of antibiotics in milk and meat. SERS is a surface-sensitive advanced analytical technique that has largely been exploited for chemical and biological analysis due to its unique property of enhancing Raman signals for analytes absorbed on rough Raman scattering nanomaterials. It is quite an interesting tool in drug analysis because of its nature to be exploited for sensitive and rapid as well as in-feld and in-laboratory detection. In the animal farming sector, violations such as excessive dosage, prolonged use, and use of illegal drugs are very common during application; so it is important to implement promising tools such as SERS in this area. Here in this paper, we present novel approaches related to drug analysis in milk and meat products including chicken, duck meats, fsh, and pork. Different direct and indirect detection techniques and strategies have been discussed. In addition, this review also addresses strengths, limitations, and future trends of SERS with a conclusion at the end. 1. Introduction Out of the several topics related to safety, what we call ‘food safety’ is probably the most sensitive aspect in people’s life. Within the circle of this topic, it is routinely claimed that millions of people lose their lives every year in connection to eating and drinking contaminated foods and beverages. Chemical, physical and microbiological contaminants are the three known pollutants of food. From chemical perspective, the use of pesticides in agriculture, food additives, and food adulterants in food factories and antibiotic drugs in the farmed animals are the primary sources of food contamination. The use of antibiotics in farmed animals is becoming a more signifcant public issue (Van Boeckel et al., 2015) nowadays as the production and usage rate are remarkably increasing. Annually millions of tons of antibiotics are exhausted to maintain the health of commercial and household animals. Encouraged by the increased consumer demands and preferences towards their products, animal farmers practice a bulky use of antibiotic drugs to ensure consistent provision of adequate foods. The so called antibiotics are used as drugs for; a) therapeutic purpose, whereby they are given to a target animal directly (through injection) at levels that are effective to cure * Corresponding author. E-mail address: guoyahui@jiangnan.edu.cn (Y. Guo). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Control journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2021.108019 Received 20 October 2020; Received in revised form 14 February 2021; Accepted 20 February 2021