butanedione

fruity ketone Key food odorant

Found in 2 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

Key food odorant (generalist)

Dunkel et al. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 16 generalist odorants — appears in >25% of foods, typically from generic Maillard, lipid-oxidation, or fermentation pathways. Characteristic odor: buttery.

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

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 2.8 ppb – 18.0 ppb median 5.5 ppb · 4 published values · see all 27 with sources
CAS number: 431-03-8

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match

FEMA number: 2370
GRAS publication: GRAS 3
FEMA primary name: DIACETYL-2,3-Butanedione; Biacetyl; Dimethyl

Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33.

Published thresholds

27 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

2.8 ppb – 18.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
2.8 ppb	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	30972045
4.4 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
6.5 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies	—
18.0 ppb SIDA	water	Dunkel 2014	—

In a food matrix

0.390 ppb – 44.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.390 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	30972045
0.640 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	30972045
0.940 ppb	water (food: longjing green tea infusion)	Literature corpus	30972045
0.960 ppb	water (food: green tea infusion (jingshan cha))	Literature corpus	30972045
1.0 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	30972045
4.0 ppb	water (food: smoked cooked loin (pork))	Literature corpus	30972045
6.5 ppb	water (food: wheat porridge / bread crumb)	Literature corpus	30972045
6.5 ppb	water (food: extruded wheat flour)	Literature corpus	30972045
15.0 ppb	water (food: coffee)	Literature corpus	30972045
44.0 ppb	water (food: fish)	Literature corpus	30972045

Retronasal / in-mouth

5.0 ppb – 32.5 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
5.0 ppb	water_flavor	Leffingwell	—
5.0 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies	—
32.5 ppb SIDA	oil_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies	—

In air

0.050 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.050 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—

Other matrix

2.8 ppb – 100 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
2.8 ppb	ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	30972045
2.8 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged))	Literature corpus	30972045
2.8 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (young))	Literature corpus	30972045
4.5 ppb	oil (sunflower oil) (food: gouda cheese)	Literature corpus	30972045
6.5 ppb SIDA	starch	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
10.0 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
25.0 ppb SIDA	cellulose	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
66.0 ppb SIDA	beer_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
100 ppb	wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	30972045

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 butanedione. 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 butanedione in it.

101 cmpds

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