The authors investigated the content of Ethyl Carbamate (EC), a suspected carcinogen, in 180 samples of alcoholic beverages including sake, synthetic-sake, and
shochu. The commercial 157 sakes which we used for analysis was as follows: 125 normal products (without over three years of storage with a manufacturer), and 32
koshu (with over three years of storage with a manufacturer). The number of samples of synthetic-sake was 4. The commercial 19
shochu which we used for analysis were as follows: 6
sweet potato shochu, 5
wheat shochu, 4
rice shochu, one muscovado shochu, one soba shochu, one
sesame shochu, and one
awamori. The sake (normal products) contained 47μg/kg of EC on the average, and 210μg/kg of EC at the maximum. The sake (
koshu) contained 183μg/kg of EC on the average, and 1100μg/kg of EC at the maximum. The content of EC in all of the synthetic-sakes was less than the limit of quantification (20μg/kg). The content of EC in 15 of
shochu was less than the limit of quantification, and the maxium level of EC in
shochu was 37μg/kg. A high regular correlation was present in
koshu between ultraviolet absorption and EC content.
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