2(5h)-furanone

caramel furan

Found in 16 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C4H4O2
Molecular weight: 84.07 g/mol
PubChem CID: 10341 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: buttery
Volatility: high
CAS number: 497-23-4
Retention index: 1306

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match

FEMA number: 4868
GRAS publication: GRAS 28
CAS number: 61315-75-1
FEMA primary name: 4-(4-Methyl-3-penten-1-yl)-2(5H)-furanone

Reported use levels (ppm by food category)

Typical vs maximum reported addition levels in finished food. Use as a regulatory ceiling reference — verify against the current GRAS publication for your product category.

Food category	Typical (ppm)	Maximum (ppm)
baked goods	0.0001	0.001
beverages, alcoholic	1e-05	0.0001
beverages, non-alcoholic	1e-05	0.0001
beverages, nonalcoholic	1e-05	0.0001
breakfast cereals	0.0001	0.001
cheeses	0.001	0.01
chewing gum	0.0001	0.001
confections and frostings	0.0001	0.001
egg products	0.0001	0.001
fats and oils	0.001	0.01
fish products	0.0001	0.001
frozen dairy	0.0001	0.001
fruit ices	1e-05	0.0001
gelatins and puddings	0.0001	0.001
gravies	0.001	0.01
hard candy	0.0001	0.001
imitation dairy	0.0001	0.001
instant coffee and tea	1e-05	0.0001
meat products	1e-05	0.0001
milk products	1e-05	0.0001
nut products	0.0001	0.001
other grains	0.0001	0.001
processed fruits	1e-05	0.0001
seasonings and flavors	0.01	0.1
snack foods	0.0001	0.001
soft candy	0.0001	0.001
soups	0.0001	0.001

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. 2 related FEMA records for this name — verify the exact substance for regulatory use.

How this molecule is described

Sources disagree about odour more often than they disagree about chemistry. Rather than show one answer, here is every description on file with how many ingredient records carry it.

Descriptions on file

Ordered by how many independent descriptor streams give each wording, then by how often it appears. The bar is still replication — one source copied onto many ingredients scores high there — so the two can disagree.

buttery shown above FlavorDB 2.0, Flavordb Odor Column 2 sources agree

sweet FlavorDB 2.0

Bars are the share of ingredient records carrying each description. High agreement means the sources replicate each other — not necessarily that they are right.

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain 2(5h)-furanone. Ingredients with a measured concentration come first, ranked by odour activity; the rest follow by how large a share of that ingredient's profile this molecule is. The figure beside each is how many different compounds that ingredient has in total — not the concentration of 2(5h)-furanone in it.

92 cmpds

124 cmpds

144 cmpds

152 cmpds