Improved sample preparation for GC-MS-SIM analysis of ethyl carbamate in wine

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 μg L−1) and 1.7% (88.5 μg L−1), regression coefficient was 0.999 in the linear working range of 3-89 μg L−1, and limits of detection and quantification were 0.4 and 1.2 μg L−1. Applicability was demonstrated by analysis (in triplicate) of 5 wine samples. EC concentration ranged from 5.2 ± 0.2 to 29.4 ± 1.5 μg L−1. The analytical method is selective, accurate, repeatable, linear, and has similar method performance as the reference method along with the several mentioned advantages.