ABSTRACT:
Ethyl carbamate (EC, urethane, C2H5OCONH2) is a known genotoxic carcinogen of widespread occurrence in fermented foods and beverages, with the highest concentrations found in stone-fruit spirits. In this study, the rapid method of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in combination with partial least squares (PLS) regression using selected wavelength bands is applied for the first time to the screening analysis of ethyl carbamate in stone fruit spirits (analysis time only 2 min). For confirmatory analysis, the optimisation of a novel HS-SPME/GC/MS/MS method is presented.
