3-methyl-2(5h)-furanone

caramel furan

Found in 4 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C5H6O2
Molecular weight: 98.10 g/mol
PubChem CID: 30945 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: sweet, coconut, caramel, toffee
Odor threshold: 1594.5 ppb
Volatility: high
CAS number: 22122-36-7
Retention index: 972

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

~ Likely match

FEMA number: 4902
GRAS publication: GRAS 29
CAS number: 22122-36-7
FEMA primary name: 3-Methyl-2(5H)-furanone α-Methyl-γ-crotonolactone

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	0.01	20
beverages, alcoholic	0.001	10
beverages, non-alcoholic	0.001	10
chewing gum	0.01	20
frozen dairy	0.001	10
hard candy	0.01	20
instant coffee and tea	0.001	10
milk products	0.001	10
soft candy	0.01	20

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33.

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.

sweet aroma FlavorDB 2.0, Flavordb Odor Column 2 sources agree

coconut, toffee-like, caramel FlavorDB 2.0

sweet, coconut, caramel, toffee shown above Llm Adjudicated

—

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 3-methyl-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 3-methyl-2(5h)-furanone in it.

✓1 13 cmpds

54 cmpds

240 cmpds

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