3-methyl-1-butanol acetate

fruity ester Key food odorant

Found in 5 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: fruity, banana.

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

Properties

Odor description: fruity
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 2.0 ppb – 245 ppb median 19.0 ppb · 3 published values · see all 16 with sources
CAS number: 123-92-2

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

2.0 ppb – 245 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
2.0 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
19.0 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies	—
245 ppb SIDA	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19753606, 25939071 +14

In a food matrix

2.1 ppb – 872 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.090 ppb SIDA	water (food: banana)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19753606, 25939071 +14
Flagged: 389× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.326 ppb SIDA	water (food: beer)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19753606, 25939071 +14
Flagged: 107× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
2.1 ppb SIDA	water (food: grape)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19753606, 25939071 +14
33.0 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	26973621, 38846797, 40467248
35.0 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	31861730, 32796601, 35956905
52.0 ppb	water (food: wine)	Literature corpus	25939071, 32397426, 32657431 +1
83.0 ppb	water (food: beef)	Literature corpus	28911457
457 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	41048468
872 ppb SIDA	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19753606, 33995294 +1

Retronasal / in-mouth

3.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
3.0 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

Other matrix

30.0 ppb – 250 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
30.0 ppb SIDA	wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19753606, 25939071 +14
245 ppb SIDA	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged))	Literature corpus	18570373, 19753606, 25939071 +14
250 ppb SIDA	ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	18570373, 19753606, 25939071 +14

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 3-methyl-1-butanol 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 3-methyl-1-butanol acetate in it.

24 cmpds

211 cmpds

315 cmpds

366 cmpds