2-methylbutanoic acid methyl ester

fruity ester 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 (intermediary)

Dunkel et al. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants — appears in 5–25% of foods. Characteristic odor: fruity, apple.

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

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 0.004 ppb – 0.250 ppb median 0.127 ppb · 2 published values · see all 7 with sources
CAS number: 868-57-5

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

7 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

0.004 ppb – 0.250 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.004 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
0.250 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—

In a food matrix

45.0 ppb – 779 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
45.0 ppb	water (food: fish)	Literature corpus	—
242 ppb	water (food: peanut)	Literature corpus	—
253 ppb	water (food: apple)	Literature corpus	—
779 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	—

In air

0.00015 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.00015 ppb	air (food: dill herb)	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-methylbutanoic acid methyl ester. 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-methylbutanoic acid methyl ester in it.

strawberry

berry

479 cmpds

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