2-phenethyl acetate

fruity ester Key food odorant

Found in 6 ingredients 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: flowery.

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

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 108 ppb 1 published value · see all 14 with sources
CAS number: 103-45-7
Retention index: 1816

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

14 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

108 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
108 ppb	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	33995294, 34666813, 35497223 +7

In a food matrix

1.4 ppb – 310 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.4 ppb	water (food: peach)	Literature corpus	37476402
1.9 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	33995294, 34666813, 35497223 +1
2.0 ppb	water (food: wine)	Literature corpus	36496598
2.3 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	37188725
5.0 ppb	water (food: apple)	Literature corpus	33995294, 34666813, 35497223 +7
20.1 ppb	water (food: beer)	Literature corpus	33995294, 34666813, 35497223 +7
310 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	41048468
424 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	38846797, 40467248
Flagged: 116× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.

Retronasal / in-mouth

20.0 ppb – 212 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
20.0 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
212 ppb SIDA	oil_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

Other matrix

137 ppb – 233 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
137 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
233 ppb	oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans)	Literature corpus	33995294, 34666813, 35497223 +7
233 ppb	oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa powder)	Literature corpus	33995294, 34666813, 35497223 +7

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-phenethyl acetate. 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-phenethyl acetate in it.

85 cmpds

259 cmpds

320 cmpds

410 cmpds