Probabilistic dietary exposure to ethyl carbamate from fermented foods and alcoholic beverages in the Korean population

ABSTRACT

The occurrence of ethyl carbamate was investigated in fermented foods and alcoholic beverages of the Korean total diet study. The concentrations of ethyl carbamate ranged from not detected to 166.5 μg kg⁻¹. Dietary exposure to ethyl carbamate was estimated by the probabilistic method. Estimated intakes of ethyl carbamate from foods and alcoholic beverages were 4.12 ng kg⁻¹ body weight (bw) per day for average consumers and 12.37 ng kg⁻¹ bw/day for 95th percentile high consumers. The major foods contributing to ethyl carbamate exposure were soy sauce (63%), followed by maesilju (plum liqueur, 30%), whisky (5%), and bokbunjaju (black raspberry wine, 2%). On the basis of the benchmark dose lower confidence limit 10% (BMDL₁₀) of 0.3 mg kg⁻¹ bw/day, margins of exposure were 128,000 for mean exposure and 40,000 for 95th percentile exposure. This indicates that the exposure of the Korean general population for ethyl carbamate is of low concern. However, careful vigilance should be continued for high consumers of fermented foods and alcoholic beverages.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethyl carbamate
• total diet study
• dietary exposure
• margin of exposure
• Korean population

Acknowledgment

This research was supported by a grant (13162MFDS049) from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2013‒15.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Ministry of Food and Drug Safety; 13162MFDS049.