Effective Ethyl Carbamate Prevention in Red Wines by Treatment with Immobilized Acid Urease
Author(s)
Date Issued
2024
Type
article
Volume
13
Issue
2476
Start Page
1
End Page
12
Journal
Abstract
Climate change poses several challenges in the wine industry, including increasing risks
related to chemical food contaminants such as biogenic amines and ethyl carbamate (EC). In this
work, we focused on urea removal in red wines by immobilized acid urease aiming at limiting EC
formation during wine storage. By considering separable kinetics of catalyst deactivation and urea
hydrolysis, it was possible to model the time course of urea removal in repeated uses in stirred
batch reactors. Treatments based on immobilized urease of red wine enriched with 30 mg/L of urea
allowed the reduction in the contaminant concentration to <5 mg/L. After 28.5 h of treatment, the
observed urea level was reduced to about 0.5 mg/L, corresponding to a decrease in the potential ethyl
carbamate (PEC) from 1662 μg/L to 93 μg/L, below the level of the non-enriched wine (187 μg/L).
As a comparison, when treating the same wine with the free enzyme at maximum doses allowed by
the EU law, urea and PEC levels decreased to only 12 mg/L and 415 μg/L respectively, after 600 h of
treatment. These results show that, for red wines, urease immobilization is an effective strategy for
urea removal and, thus, effective reduction in ethyl carbamate as a process contaminant. This study
provides the scientific background for the future scaling-up of the process at an industrial level.