buten-2-one
Key food odorantFound in 2 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. 2014Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants — appears in 5–25% of foods. Characteristic odor: flowery, wine-like.
Properties
- Odor description
- chemical, coffee, fermented
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 590 ppb – 2600 ppb median 962 ppb · 4 published values · see all 28 with sources
- CAS number
- 60-12-8
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 2495
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 3
- FEMA primary name
- 4-(2-FURYL)-3-BUTEN-2-ONE-Furfurylidene acetone
Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.
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.
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
28 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
590 ppb – 2600 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 590 ppb SIDA | water | Dunkel 2014 | — |
| 925 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
| 1000 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies | — |
| 2600 ppb SIDA | water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
In a food matrix
0.390 ppb – 390 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.390 ppb SIDA | water (food: smoked cooked loin (pork)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 1.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: tea) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 1.4 ppb SIDA | water (food: rice) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 5.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: longjing green tea infusion) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 7.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: soy sauce) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 7.4 ppb | water (food: honey) | Literature corpus | 19326859 |
| 11.2 ppb SIDA | water (food: unknown) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 26973023, 33995294 +4 |
| 34.8 ppb SIDA | water (food: rum) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 87.5 ppb | water (food: cheese) | Literature corpus | 42160145 |
| 140 ppb SIDA | water (food: reference standard (water)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 390 ppb SIDA | water (food: japanese soy sauce) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 1491 ppb | water (food: lime) | Literature corpus | 30972045, 41048468 |
| Flagged: 133× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 1573 ppb SIDA | water (food: bread) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 41613919 |
| Flagged: 140× 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
45.0 ppb – 122 ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45.0 ppb SIDA | water_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 122 ppb SIDA | oil_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
Other matrix
125 ppb – 3600 ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 ppb SIDA | cellulose | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 211 ppb SIDA | oil_orthonasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 211 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: gouda cheese) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 211 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 211 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa powder) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 1000 ppb SIDA | wine (food: red wine (cabernet sauvignon)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 2600 ppb SIDA | ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 2600 ppb SIDA | ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +9 |
| 3600 ppb SIDA | wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19326859, 26973023 +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.
Where you'd actually smell it
Odor Activity Value = measured concentration ÷ odor threshold (61.1275 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 28 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.
| Food | Concentration (ppb) | OAV | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| turkey | 571.0 | 9.34 | PMID 15713037 |
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 shareEvery ingredient known to contain buten-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 buten-2-one in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.
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