4-methylpentanoate

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, waxy.

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

Properties

Odor description: fruity, sweet, honey, apple, pear
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 0.700 ppb – 147 ppb median 73.8 ppb · 2 published values · see all 17 with sources
CAS number: 106-32-1

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match

FEMA number: 4343
GRAS publication: GRAS 23
FEMA primary name: Ethyl 4-methylpentanoate

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)
beverages (nonalcoholic)	5	50

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. 1 related FEMA record for this name — verify the exact substance for regulatory use.

Published thresholds

17 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

0.700 ppb – 147 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.700 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
147 ppb SIDA	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	30779560, 18570373, 15826061 +22

In a food matrix

1.9 ppb – 123 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.022 ppb	water (food: beer)	Literature corpus	17499755, 33889833
Flagged: 191× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.032 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	41551788
Flagged: 132× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
1.9 ppb SIDA	water (food: grape)	Literature corpus	30779560, 18570373, 15826061 +22
2.0 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	26973621, 38846797, 40467248 +1
2.4 ppb	water (food: cheese)	Literature corpus	42160145
3.5 ppb	water (food: orange)	Literature corpus	37515910
5.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: apple)	Literature corpus	30779560, 18570373, 15826061 +22
5.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: goat milk)	Literature corpus	30779560, 18570373, 15826061 +22
76.0 ppb	water (food: wine)	Literature corpus	25939071, 32657431, 41365581
108 ppb SIDA	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	18570373, 25717332, 27664650 +2
123 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	15826061, 41048468
1196 ppb SIDA	water (food: bread)	Literature corpus	18570373, 28274420, 28490062 +4
Flagged: 283× 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

0.100 ppb

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

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

Other matrix

4.5 ppb – 38.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
4.5 ppb SIDA	wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: red wine)	Literature corpus	30779560, 18570373, 15826061 +22
38.0 ppb SIDA	starch	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

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.

Where you'd actually smell it

Odor Activity Value = measured concentration ÷ odor threshold (3.46 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 17 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
butter	2000.0	578 ⚡	Corpus paper
pineapple	9.7	2.80	PMID 30569201

Concentrations from PubMed Central Open Access papers (free literature corpus, MIT-style licensed). Copper = OAV ≥ 10 (strongly perceptible). Green = OAV ≥ 1 (perceptible).

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain 4-methylpentanoate. 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 4-methylpentanoate in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

baijiu

Beverage

201 cmpds

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