Validation of analytical methods for ethyl carbamate in nine food matrices.

Ethyl carbamate (EC) is formed through a reaction between ethanol and either cyanate or N-carbamyl compounds. This study aimed to develop and validate analytical methods for EC determination in nine food matrices: apple juice, soju, milk, corn oil, rice porridge, peanut butter, beef, flat fish, and sea mustard. Differences from AOAC procedure were use of d5-EC as internal standard, dilution of alcohol content, removal of lipophilic compounds by hexane, and removal of hydrophilic polysaccharides by gel-forming. Standard curves had a good linearity (R(2)>0.997) in all matrices tested. LOD and LOQ were in the range of 0.69-6.08μg/kg and 2.10-18.43μg/kg, respectively. Recovery rates ranged from 80.75 to 121.82% for intra-day and ranged from 78.84 to 116.98% for inter-day. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) were below 14%. These results indicate that the established methods can be applied to determine EC in a variety of foods.