betaine

other nitrogen compound

Found in 496 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C5H11NO2
Molecular weight: 117.15 g/mol
PubChem CID: 247 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: bland
Odor threshold — in a food matrix: 10.7 ppb 1 published value · see all 1 with sources
Volatility: high
CAS number: 107-43-7

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

✓ Exact match

FEMA number: 4223
GRAS publication: GRAS 22
FEMA primary name: Betaine

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	1000	5000
beverages (alcoholic)	1000	5000
beverages (nonalcoholic)	1000	5000
breakfast cereal	1000	5000
cheese	1000	5000
chewing gum	1000	5000
condiments/ relishes	1000	5000
confectionery frostings	1000	5000
egg products	1000	5000
fats/oils	1000	5000
fish products	1000	5000
frozen dairy	1000	5000
fruit ices	1000	5000
gelatins/ puddings	1000	5000
granulated sugar	1000	5000
gravies	1000	5000
hard candy	1000	5000
imitation dairy	1000	5000
instant coffee/tea	1000	5000
jams/jellies	1000	5000
meat products	1000	5000
milk products	1000	5000
nut products	1000	5000
other grains	1000	5000
poultry	1000	5000
processed fruits	1000	5000
processed vegetables	1000	5000
reconstituted vegetables	1000	5000
seasonings/ flavors	1000	5000
snack foods	1000	5000
soft candy	1000	5000
soups	1000	5000
sugar substitutes	1000	5000
sweet sauces	1000	5000

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33.

Published thresholds

1 measured value 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.

In a food matrix

10.7 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
10.7 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	30675466, 41821705

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 (2270864.2325 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 1 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
wheat beer	183000.0	0.08	Corpus paper

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 betaine. 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 betaine in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

6 cmpds

7 cmpds

10 cmpds

16 cmpds