Ethyl carbamate regulate esters degradation by activating hydrolysis during Baijiu ripening

The presence of ethyl carbamate in traditional fermented food is a public health concern for the FDA. The effect of forced photoirradiation (0–150,000 lx) and thermal stress (4, 25, 40 °C) on ethyl carbamate (0–150 μg/L) on physiological characteristics of Baijiu, such as esters content, photochemical degradation, and hydrogen-bond interaction efficiency were monitored by ultra high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole-orbitrap and the dynamic changes by digital foodomics analysis. Furthermore, 748 trace components covering 11 subclasses were identified in Baijiu and 71 esters were screened by Spearman’s correlation, fold changes, P values and VIP values. A forward stepwise multiple regression and discriminant analysis were performed for predicting the content of esters from appearance characteristics obtained by foodomics analysis, reaching R-square values up to 0.91. A reduction of the present variation in ethyl lactate, ethyl caproate, diethyl succinate, ethyl oleate and ethyl linoleate concentration could possibly result in a better understanding of the ethyl carbamate effects. Ethyl carbamate was found to cause esters hydrolysis through inter-molecular interaction in various species of alcoholic drinks. It was demonstrated that the light exposure level and thermal intensity applied for ethyl carbamate-spiked Baijiu samples did not unambiguously influence esters concentration in Baijiu. Future research should focus on moderate light exposure level and thermal stress and should aim at reducing natural ethyl carbamate by more closely controlling the esters content of the ripening degree.