Ethyl carbamate in alcoholic beverages (cachaca, tiquira, whisky and grape)

The presence of ethyl carbamate in cachacas, tiquiras, whiskies and grapes was investigated by GC-MS, monitoring the m/z 62 ion. The external standard method was used for quantitation in 188 samples (126 cachacas, 37 tiquiras, 6 grappas and 19 whiskies). The results of the study for cachaca were analysed considering the geographic origin, distillation type (still or column), bottle coloration (amber or transparent) and ageing. The average contents of ethyl carbamate in cacha as and tiquiras were 0.77 and 2.4 mg L-1, respectively. These values were higher than the mean concentration found in grapes (0.045 mg L-1) and whiskies (0.14 mg L-1). On average the cachacas distilled in column tend to present higher values of ethyl carbamate than those from still. In the sampling studied it was not possible to define a correlation between content of ethyl carbamate, bottle coloration and ageing time.