Ethyl carbamate urethane is the ester of carbamic acid. It has
been found mainly as a by-product of fermented foods and beverages. EC is
widely distributed in fermented foods and beverages, such as spirit, wine,
beer, bread, soy sauce, and yoghurt, due to unintentional fermentation during
production or storage process of fermented foods or beverages.
EC has been formed from
substances like urea, hydrogen cyanide, citrulline, and N-carbamyl compounds
during foods and beverage fermentations. Earlier studies reported that
unrecorded wine is rich with EC due to reaction between ethyl alcohol and
hydrogen cyanide or urea wine.
The Joint
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/World Health
Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) reported that EC
increase the probable health risk of carcinogenicity of certain types of
alcoholic beverages for regular drinkers, especially in unrecorded alcohol. EC
exhibits carcinogenic activity on different sites such as the liver, ovary, and
skin in a dose dependent manner due to its potential genotoxic activity.
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