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l-lysine

sour nitrogen compound

Found in 562 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis structure of l-lysine
2D Lewis Structure
Formula
C6H14N2O2
Molecular weight
146.19 g/mol
PubChem CID
5962 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description
odorless
Odor threshold — in a food matrix
0.070 ppb – 24.6 ppb median 1.0 ppb · 3 published values · see all 3 with sources
Volatility
low
CAS number
56-87-1
Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

✓ Exact match
FEMA number
3847
GRAS publication
GRAS 18
FEMA primary name
L-LYSINE

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

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33.

Published thresholds

3 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.

In a food matrix

0.070 ppb – 24.6 ppb

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

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
0.070 ppb water (food: onion) Literature corpus —
1.0 ppb water (food: chicken) Literature corpus —
24.6 ppb water (food: unknown) Literature corpus —

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 l-lysine. 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 l-lysine in it.

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