A study has been made of the analytical application of a nafcillin-imprinted sol-gel to the directdetermination of the
-lactamic antibiotic in spiked milk-based samples using a room temperaturephosphorescent flow-through system. The influence of the sample matrix on the transduction andthe recognition processes was statistically determined, and results demonstrated that the imprintedsol-gel optosensing system could be effectively applied to real sample analysis. The analyticalperformance characteristics were as follows: The detection limit results for aqueous and skimmedmilk were 5.8 × 10
-6 and 3.3 × 10
-5 mol L
-1, respectively, and a relative standard deviation lessthan 5% was found for both matrices. Statistical analysis of variance studies have been shown tohave no significant effect on different skimmed milk commercial products over the imprinted materialrecognition. This fact provides an indicator of the ruggedness/robustness of the proposed analyticalsystem and the possibility to use external real matrix calibration. Application of the method to nafcillinanalysis in other milk-based samples is outlined.