ethanol

chemical alcohol Key food odorant

Found in 609 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C2H6O
Molecular weight: 46.07 g/mol
PubChem CID: 702 — full record on PubChem

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: alcoholic.

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

Properties

Odor description: alcoholic, ethereal, sweet, solvent
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 62450 ppb – 100000 ppb median 100000 ppb · 3 published values · see all 11 with sources
Volatility: high
CAS number: 64-17-5
Retention index: 539

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match

FEMA number: 4794
GRAS publication: GRAS 27
CAS number: 1193-81-3
FEMA primary name: (±)-1-Cyclohexylethanol

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)
chewing gum	1000	3000
confections and frostings	50	100
fruit ices	30	60
hard candy	100	300
soft candy	50	200

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. 13 related FEMA records for this name — verify the exact substance for regulatory use.

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

ethyl alcohol ethyl-alcohol

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

Descriptions on file

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.

sweet, solvent Flavornet Cas, Flavornet Name, Flavordb Odor Column 3 sources agree

—

strong alcoholic ethereal medical FlavorDB 2.0

628

alcoholic, ethereal, medical, strong, sweet FlavorDB 2.0

ethanol-like FlavorDB 2.0

ethanolic FlavorDB 2.0

alcohol FlavorDB 2.0

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

11 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

62450 ppb – 100000 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
62450 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies	—
100000 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
99000000 ppb SIDA	water	Dunkel 2014	—
Flagged: 990× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.

In a food matrix

100000 ppb – 990000 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
100000 ppb	water (food: japanese soy sauce)	Literature corpus	17944532, 24594176, 25329789 +48
990000 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	17944532, 24594176, 25329789 +48

Retronasal / in-mouth

52000 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
52000 ppb	water_flavor	Leffingwell	—

In air

331 ppb – 520 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
331 ppb	air (C2_cometto_muniz_abraham)	Cometto-Muñiz (PMC)	—
520 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—
520 ppb	air (food: reference standard (air))	Literature corpus	17944532, 24594176, 25329789 +48

Other matrix

24900 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
24900 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged))	Literature corpus	17944532, 24594176, 25329789 +48
24900 ppb	ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (young))	Literature corpus	17944532, 24594176, 25329789 +48

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 ethanol. 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 ethanol in it.

14 cmpds

14 cmpds

14 cmpds

15 cmpds