An improved sample preparation procedure for analysis of carcinogenic ethyl carbamate (EC) in wine by
GC–MS–SIM is proposed. Differences over AOAC reference procedure were: (1) use of EC-d5 as internal
standard instead of less similar propyl carbamate; (2) extraction by diethyl ether instead of more toxic
dichloromethane, and (3) concentration by vacuum automated parallel evaporation instead of more time
and work consuming rotary evaporation. Mean recovery was 104.4%, intraday precision was 6.7%
(3.4 lg L1
) and 1.7% (88.5 lg L1
), regression coefficient was 0.999 in the linear working range of
3–89 lg L1
, and limits of detection and quantification were 0.4 and 1.2 lg L1
. Applicability was demonstrated
by analysis (in triplicate) of 5 wine samples. EC concentration ranged from 5.2 ± 0.2 to
29.4 ± 1.5 lg L1
. The analytical method is selective, accurate, repeatable, linear, and has similar method
performance as the reference method along with the several mentioned advantages.
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