Organic compound (also carbamic acid ethyl ester, ethyl urethane) as an ester of carbamic acid. It occurs in fermented foods as well as in alcoholic beverages. These are, for example, beer, bread, yoghurt, soy sauce, wine and above all spirits (especially in raw spirits ). A number of precursor substances in food and beverages, such as hydrocyanic acid, ethanol and urea can lead to the formation of ethyl carbamate during food processing and storage. The substance is formed during the fermentation of wine and the distillation of spirits. The formation is initiated by exposure of the distillate to light. However, the main amount is formed by reactive processes during storage of the beverages. The substance has mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. Precise limit values, up to which there is no risk, or a guideline value or limit value at European level do not yet exist.
A content of more than 0.4 mg/l (guideline value) is considered technically avoidable during production; from 0.8 mg/l, measures such as repeated firing must be taken. The highest values of 10 mg/l occur in stone fruit spirits (cherry, plum, etc.), as their stones contain prussic acid. In wine this is 0.01 mg/l, in bread 0.003 mg/kg, in beer 0.001 mg/l and in dairy products 0.0001 mg/kg. The daily consumption of 20 cl of a contaminated stone fruit brandy increases the risk by a factor of 10,000, of 500 ml of wine by a factor of 5. As preventive measures in the distillation of spirits, the stones must not be broken during mashing. Other preventive measures include avoiding the influence of light, using only healthy fruit if possible, using pure-breeding yeasts, fermentation not below 10 °Celsius and not above 25 °Celsius, and bottling in dark-coloured bottles. See also under carbamates and a list of toxic substances under ADI.
