Ethyl carbamate and aroma compounds in distilled spirits from different stone fruits

The purpose of this study was to find a possible correlation between ethyl carbamate (EC) content and aroma compounds in stone fruit spirits, which might result from a too harsh treatment of the stones. Possible markers should be identified, which would allow to correlate high EC levels with (negative) flavour compounds. Therefore, a total of 60 distilled spirits from different stone fruits (21 mirabelle, 20 plum, 19 cherry) was analysed on their contents of EC by HPLC-FLD and aroma compounds by headspace-trap GC/MS. The content of EC ranged from not detectable to 2,121 mu g/l with a mean of 192 mu g/l and a standard deviation of 332 mu g/l. The GC/MS analysis revealed that esters, alcohols and aldehydes made up the main part of the aroma fractions. Statistical correlation analysis showed that the ester fraction increases with increasing EC content. Yet, sensory analyses did not show any correlation between EC content and specific flavour compounds or the order in the sensory evaluation, respectively. Therefore, high EC levels could not be correlated with certain (negative) aroma compounds, thus high EC content cannot generally be regarded as a reliable marker for bad flavour quality of distilled spirits or vice versa.