propanoic acid, 2-methyl-, ethyl ester

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 (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: fruity.

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

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 0.060 ppb – 4.5 ppb median 0.100 ppb · 3 published values · see all 15 with sources
CAS number: 97-62-1

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

15 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

0.060 ppb – 4.5 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.060 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies	—
0.100 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
4.5 ppb	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5

In a food matrix

91.0 ppb – 186 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.020 ppb	water (food: hand-squeezed grapefruit juice)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5
Flagged: 2278× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.089 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5
Flagged: 512× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.100 ppb	water (food: japanese soy sauce)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5
Flagged: 455× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
91.0 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	38846797, 40467248, 41675126
99.9 ppb	water (food: wine)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 39974541
186 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	33995294, 35396186

Retronasal / in-mouth

0.030 ppb – 0.750 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.030 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
0.750 ppb SIDA	oil_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

In air

0.022 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.022 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—

Other matrix

1.2 ppb – 14.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.2 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
1.2 ppb	oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5
14.0 ppb	wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: red wine)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5

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 propanoic acid, 2-methyl-, ethyl ester. 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 propanoic acid, 2-methyl-, ethyl ester in it.

wine

beverage alcoholic

565 cmpds

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