2-methyl-1-butanal

green aldehyde Key food odorant

Found in 1 ingredient across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

Key food odorant (generalist)

Dunkel et al. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 16 generalist odorants — appears in >25% of foods, typically from generic Maillard, lipid-oxidation, or fermentation pathways. Characteristic odor: malty.

Source: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 7124–7143

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 1.0 ppb – 2.4 ppb median 1.7 ppb · 2 published values · see all 16 with sources
CAS number: 96-17-3

Not in FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. Of 3,367 listed flavoring substances, none match this compound name. May still be food-safe under other regulatory routes (FDA 21 CFR 172, EFSA, JECFA) — check femaflavor.org for the authoritative current list.

Published thresholds

16 measured values from the literature. Grouped by what was actually measured — a threshold smelled in clean water, tasted in the mouth, or measured in a real food are three different quantities and are not pooled.

Orthonasal, in clean water

1.0 ppb – 2.4 ppb

The reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.0 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
2.4 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies	—

In a food matrix

1.0 ppb – 4.4 ppb

Measured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.0 ppb	water (food: extruded wheat flour)	Literature corpus	—
1.5 ppb	water (food: green tea infusion (jingshan cha))	Literature corpus	—
1.5 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	—
1.5 ppb	water (food: longjing green tea infusion)	Literature corpus	—
4.4 ppb	water (food: japanese soy sauce)	Literature corpus	—

Retronasal / in-mouth

0.900 ppb – 15.6 ppb

Tasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.900 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
15.6 ppb SIDA	oil_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies	—

Other matrix

10.0 ppb – 140 ppb

Measured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
10.0 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies	—
21.0 ppb SIDA	cellulose	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
32.0 ppb SIDA	starch	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
33.0 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged))	Literature corpus	—
33.0 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (young))	Literature corpus	—
140 ppb	oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans)	Literature corpus	—
140 ppb	oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa powder)	Literature corpus	—

Only values we can attribute are listed. Where a compendium's licence does not permit public attribution its figures are omitted here, so every number on this page traces to a citable source.

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain 2-methyl-1-butanal. 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-methyl-1-butanal in it.

shrimp

seafood

164 cmpds

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