methyl 2-methylbutyrate
fruity ester Key food odorantFound in 50 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: fruity, apple.
Properties
- Odor description
- apple, fatty, fruity, green, sweet, tutti frutti
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 0.004 ppb – 0.250 ppb median 0.127 ppb · 2 published values · see all 7 with sources
- CAS number
- 868-57-5
- Retention index
- 862
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 2719
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 3
- FEMA primary name
- METHYL 2-METHYLBUTYRATE
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
7 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
0.004 ppb – 0.250 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.004 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 0.250 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
In a food matrix
45.0 ppb – 779 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45.0 ppb | water (food: fish) | Literature corpus | — |
| 242 ppb | water (food: peanut) | Literature corpus | — |
| 253 ppb | water (food: apple) | Literature corpus | — |
| 779 ppb | water (food: unknown) | Literature corpus | — |
In air
0.00015 ppbAirborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00015 ppb | air (food: dill herb) | 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 shareEvery ingredient known to contain methyl 2-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 methyl 2-methylbutyrate in it.
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