Abstract
Diet is generally accepted as one of the important factors in human cancer development. Ethyl carbamate has been associated with cancer for several decades and mainly found in the fermented beverages and foodstuff. The relationship between ethyl carbamate and the human health cannot be ignored especially in the areas where fermented foods consists of regular food consumption. To investigate the ethyl carbamate exposure level in Korean population, commercial fermented food samples were collected form local markets I Seoul area and home-made varieties were collected throughout the country. Following partial purification the concentration of ethyl carbamete was determined by GC/ MS. The concentration of ethyl carbamate ranged to 70 ppb in soysauce, to 10 ppb in soybean paste, and to 5 ppb in vinegars. Korean traditional alcoholic beverages showed small amount of ethyl carbamate. The estimated daily exposure of Korean population was 0~1900ng/day. It would be prudent to put efforts to minimize the formation of ethyl carbamate since the risk from the higher range exposure cannot be ignored.