Abstract: Amantadine (AMD), an antiviral agent, can cause a threat to consumers’ health when abused. Although AMD has been banned from being used in livestock and poultry in many countries including the USA and China, it is still being used illegally. This article presents a brief introduction to the physicochemical properties and hazards of amantadine, some incidences related to amantadine residues in meat and eggs, the latest standards and the commonly used methods for AMD detection. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELSA), immunochromatography, and chemiluminescence immunoassay have been traditionally and widely used for the detection of AMD. Novel immunoassays based on antigen-antibody reaction and molecular imprinting methods based on structural features of amantadine are attracting growing attention and may be used in the future.

Key words: amantadine; food; liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry; immunoassay; molecular imprinting