butan-2-one
fruity ketoneFound in 4 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.
Properties
- Odor description
- ethereal, acetone, fruity, solvent
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 36600 ppb – 50000 ppb median 43300 ppb · 2 published values · see all 7 with sources
- CAS number
- 78-93-3
- Retention index
- 918
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 4843
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 28
- CAS number
- 1838169-65-5
- FEMA primary name
- 3-(Allyldithio)butan-2-one
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 | 0.1 | 8 |
| cheeses | 0.03 | 3 |
| condiments and relishes | 0.2 | 3 |
| egg products | 0.1 | 0.5 |
| fats and oils | 0.1 | 0.5 |
| gravies | 0.1 | 2.5 |
| imitation dairy | 0.1 | 1 |
| meat products | 0.1 | 3 |
| poultry | 0.05 | 0.5 |
| processed fruits | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| seasonings and flavors | 0.01 | 8 |
| snack foods | 0.2 | 2 |
| soups | 0.1 | 1 |
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.
Same molecule, unified here — previously counted and displayed as separate compounds.
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.
Bars are the share of ingredient records carrying each description. High agreement means the sources replicate each other — not necessarily that they are right.
Published thresholds
7 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
36600 ppb – 50000 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36600 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies | — |
| 50000 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
In a food matrix
9.8 ppb – 104 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.8 ppb | water (food: bread) | Literature corpus | — |
| 43.0 ppb | water (food: fish) | Literature corpus | — |
| 104 ppb | water (food: unknown) | Literature corpus | — |
In air
440 ppb – 1995 ppbAirborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 440 ppb | air | Nagata 2003 | — |
| 1995 ppb | air (HS_hellman_small) | Cometto-Muñiz (PMC) | — |
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 shareEvery ingredient known to contain butan-2-one. 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 butan-2-one in it.
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