WINES, BEER ‘SUSPECT’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32798, 24 December 1971, Page 18

WINES, BEER ‘SUSPECT’

Chemical may cause cancer (N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) NEW YORK, December 21. Two Swedish researchers say that the food preservative diethyl pyrocarbonate (D.E.P.) widely used in wines, draught beer and uncarbonated drinks, can produce the cancer-causing chemical, urethan, in several beverages in which it is used. G. Lofroth and T. Gejvall, of the radiobiology division of the University of Stockholm write in a report in the current issue of the “American Journal of Science” that D.E.P. can react with ammonia in the beverages to produce urethan. However, they say that there is “inadequate information" on urethan concentrations in D.E.P.-treated beverages.

Their study involved adding known quantities of D.E.P. to the liquids and the measuring of the resultant amounts of urethan. The amount of D.E.P. used was two to three times that permitted in beer and wine but equal to the amount that may be added to fruit drinks.

The results showed to 10 times higher concentrations of urethan in wine and beer than in orange juice. A spokesman for the United States Food and Drug Administration said that it was conducting an industry survey to determine how widely D.E.P. was used.