ethyl alpha-methylbutyrate

fruity ester Key food odorant

Found in 1 ingredient 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: fruity.

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

Properties

Odor description: fruity aroma
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 0.200 ppb – 0.225 ppb median 0.200 ppb · 3 published values · see all 12 with sources
CAS number: 7452-79-1

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.

Published thresholds

12 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

0.200 ppb – 0.225 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.200 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
0.200 ppb	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	—
0.225 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies	—

In a food matrix

0.001 ppb – 0.013 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.001 ppb	water (food: orange juice (reconstituted from concentrate))	Literature corpus	—
0.006 ppb	water (food: hand-squeezed grapefruit juice)	Literature corpus	—
0.013 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	—
3.0 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	—
Flagged: 231× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
15.0 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	—
Flagged: 1154× 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

0.010 ppb – 0.510 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.010 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
0.510 ppb SIDA	oil_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

Other matrix

0.260 ppb – 0.620 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.260 ppb	oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans)	Literature corpus	—
0.620 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

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 ethyl alpha-methylbutyrate. 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 ethyl alpha-methylbutyrate in it.

cashew apple

fruit

24 cmpds

Into the chemistry?

Get a molecule-level pairing breakdown each week — which ingredients share a compound, and why it matters at the table. Free, no spam.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Try the pairing tools to see which ingredient combinations rely on ethyl alpha-methylbutyrate, or compare two ingredients side-by-side.