butanoic acid ethyl ester

fruity ester Key food odorant

Found in 5 ingredients 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.

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

Properties

Odor description: sweet
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 1.0 ppb – 9.5 ppb median 1.0 ppb · 3 published values · see all 27 with sources
CAS number: 105-54-4
Retention index: 919

Not in FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. Of 3,367 listed flavoring substances, none match this compound name. May still be food-safe under other regulatory routes (FDA 21 CFR 172, EFSA, JECFA) — check femaflavor.org for the authoritative current list.

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.

Also filed as

butanoic acid, ethyl ester

Same molecule, unified here — previously counted and displayed as separate compounds.

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

1.0 ppb – 9.5 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.0 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
1.0 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies	—
9.5 ppb	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9

In a food matrix

0.015 ppb – 18.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.015 ppb	water (food: beer)	Literature corpus	17499755, 33889833
0.225 ppb	water (food: strawberry)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
0.400 ppb	water (food: grape)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
0.760 ppb	water (food: pink guava)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
0.760 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
1.0 ppb	water (food: apple)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
1.0 ppb	water (food: orange juice (reconstituted from concentrate))	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
1.0 ppb	water (food: hand-squeezed grapefruit juice)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
1.1 ppb	water (food: orange)	Literature corpus	37515910
2.0 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	38846797, 40467248
18.0 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	32796601, 35956905
152 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	19753606, 25857434, 33488534 +2
Flagged: 152× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
342 ppb	water (food: wine)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
Flagged: 342× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
807 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
Flagged: 807× 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 – 3.5 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.100 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
3.5 ppb SIDA	oil_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
450 ppb	water_flavor	Leffingwell	—
Flagged: 129× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.

In air

0.040 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.040 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—

Other matrix

9.5 ppb – 28.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
9.5 ppb	ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
9.5 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged))	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
9.5 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (young))	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
20.0 ppb	wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9
28.0 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
28.0 ppb	oil (sunflower oil) (food: gouda cheese)	Literature corpus	17499755, 19753606, 25857434 +9

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 butanoic acid ethyl ester. 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 butanoic acid ethyl ester in it.

295 cmpds

344 cmpds

426 cmpds

448 cmpds