triethylamine

roasted nitrogen compound

Found in 1 ingredient across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C6H15N
Molecular weight: 101.19 g/mol
PubChem CID: 8471 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: ammoniacal, fishy
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 400 ppb 1 published value · see all 4 with sources
Volatility: high
CAS number: 121-44-8

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

✓ Exact match

FEMA number: 4246
GRAS publication: GRAS 22
FEMA primary name: Triethylamine

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)
baked goods	2	10
breakfast cereal	0.2	1
cheese	0.4	2
condiments/ relishes	0.1	0.5
confectionery frostings	1	5
fats/oils	0.1	0.5
fish products	0.2	1
frozen dairy	0.4	2
fruit ices	0.4	2
gravies	0.1	0.5
meat products	0.2	1
milk products	0.4	2
other grains	0.2	1
poultry	0.2	1
processed fruits	0.4	2
seasonings/ flavors	0.1	0.5
snack foods	1	5
soups	0.1	0.5

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33.

Published thresholds

4 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

400 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
400 ppb	water	PMC open access	—

In air

0.206 ppb – 240 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.206 ppb	air (food: reference standard (air))	Literature corpus	—
5.4 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—
240 ppb	air	PMC open access	—

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 triethylamine. 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 triethylamine in it.

grape

fruit

578 cmpds

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