Níveis de carbamato de etila nas cachaças pernambucanas e suas tecnologias de produção

Abstract

The State of Pernambuco, the second largest producer of cachaça in Brazil, has been consolidating the quality of its cachaça and pursued, with success, paths for exporting the product. However, the levels of ethyl carbamate (EC), a recognized genotoxic carcinogen, in the cachaças and sugar cane spirits produced in Pernambuco State are still unknown. A Brazilian regulation (prepared by Ministry of the Agriculture, Livestock and Provisioning – MAPA) that limits the amount of EC in cachaça or sugar cane spirit (150 μgL-1) will come into effect from 30 June 2010. Taking into consideration a possible association between the processing of cachaça, in particular the distillation step, and its EC level, the objective of this work was to investigate the EC levels of recorded (legal) cachaças and sugar cane spirits produced in the State of Pernambuco and their technological profile. Duplicate samplings of 33 brands of cachaças and sugar cane spirits from Pernambuco State were analyzed for EC (through GC-MS) and 9 cachaça producing companies were visited to obtain details on their distillation process. In addition, the samples were analyzed for the following physiochemical parameters: alcoholic degree, volatile acidity, total sugars, total dry extract, and copper. Regarding the physiochemical parameters investigated in the 33 brands, the following percentages of nonconformity with the current MAPA regulations, per parameter, were found: alcoholic degree (27%), volatile acidity (9%), total sugars (9%) and copper (9%). According to the distillation systems applied to the 33 brands, it was found that 13 (39%) were obtained by batch distillation in pot stills (pot still cachaça) and 20 (61%) by continuous distillation in columns stills (column still cachaça). The average EC concentrations varied from less than 10 μgL-1 (detection limit) up to 532.5 μgL-1. Eighteen brands (55%) contained EC levels above the MAPA regulation limit, among these brands only two came from distillation in pot stills. In comparison to columns still cachaças, lower EC levels in cachaças distilled in pot stills, particularly pot stills with the ascending and descending parts made of copper and stainless stills, respectively, were observed. In spite of the higher levels of EC in column still cachaças from Pernambuco State, they can be considered as low when compared to average levels of EC reported by other studies on column still cachaças. One of the possible reasons was the observation that producers of column still cachaça from Pernambuco State have been gradually including and excluding copper in the ascending and descending parts of their column stills, respectively. This study has confirmed that batch distillation in pot still, probably due to the removal of "heads" fraction, richer in EC precursors, combined with high reflux (ascending part) and low distillate contamination with copper (descending part), produces cachaça with very low levels of EC.