Ethyl formate (EF) is a volatile compound which occurs naturally in a variety of products, including beef, cheese, rice, grapes and wine, and is generally recognized as a safe (GRAS) compound. It has been shown to have some insecticidal properties and leaves only trace amounts of residue on treated products. It has been used as a GRAS fumigant of dried fruit and is under investigation as a fumigant for other commodities.

Lab system for fumigation

Presentations

Control of bean thrips in navel oranges using ethyl formate fumigation for export to Australia (pdf)
Beth Mitcham, Veronique Bikoba, Mary Lu Arpaia, and Joseph Morse
2007
This PowerPoint presentation discusses the goals of a research program to develop fumigation protocol with ethyl formate for control of bean thrips in navel oranges

Ethyl Formate Studies

Ethyl formate - where are we up to? (pdf)
Peter C. Annis
2007
This article reviews the last 25 years of research in the use of ethyl formate as a fumigant. the author concludes that there is promise of considerable commercial use.

Ethyl formate as a postharvest fumigant for selected pests of table grapes (pdf)
T. Simpson, V. Bikoba, C. Tipping, and E. J. Mitcham
2007
Ethyl formate was evaluated for control of several common arthropod pests of table grapes: western flower thrips, grape mealybug, Pacific spider mite and omnivorous leafroller. Table grape tolerance to EF exposure was also evaluated. Lethal doses for the pests were tolerated by table grapes with the exception of omnivorous leafroller pupae.
Elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have been shown to improve the efficacy of some fumigants and to decrease flammability of ethyl formate, and thus is important to the commercial fumigation process. In this study, the addition of 10% CO2 to EF during fumigation had varying affects on the efficacy of the fumigation.