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Compound sheet

Aroma molecule · aldehyde

3-(methylthio)-1-propanal

Smells ofcooked potato

Found in 1 ingredient. We hold no measured concentration for it in any of them yet, so we cannot say where it is strong enough to smell.

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Formula
—
Mass
104.17 g/mol
CAS
3268-49-3
PubChem
—
Threshold · water
0.400 ppb
Class
aldehyde
Status
Key food odorant

01How little it takes

  • in water 0.43
  • in a foodpapers disagree 0.33
  • in alcohol 7.11
  • in oil 0.18
  • in starch 0.27

ppb, log scale · tick = median of published values, bar = full range, from open-access paper tables (not reviewed)

02Where it turns up

  • Fruit1

of the 1 ingredient that contain it, by food group

03What it travels with

Too few ingredients to say what it travels with.

What does 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal smell like?

The key-food-odorant survey describes it as cooked potato.

It is a key food odorant (generalist): identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 16 generalist odorants, which appear in more than 25% of foods, typically from generic Maillard, lipid-oxidation or fermentation pathways. Source: Dunkel et al. 2014, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 7124–7143

Which foods contain 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal?

We list 1 ingredient that contain it, but presence is not the same as smell. What matters is how much is there compared with how little it takes to notice it. That ratio is the odour activity value (OAV): above 1, you can smell it.

Found in

Measured foods first, then real food profiles, then thin or composite records (marked). The figure beside each is how many compounds that ingredient has in total, not the amount of 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal in it. ✓n = sources that recorded the link.

How strong is 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal?

Orthonasal, in clean water: 0.200 ppb to 1.0 ppb, median 0.400 ppb, from 3 published values.

Published thresholds

21 measured values from the literature, grouped by what was measured: a threshold smelled in clean water, tasted, or measured in a real food are different quantities and are not pooled.

Orthonasal, in clean water · 0.200 ppb–1.0 ppb ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
0.200 ppb water_odor Leffingwell —
0.400 ppb SIDA water Dunkel 2014 —
1.0 ppb SIDA water Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies —
In a food matrix · 0.200 ppb–1.8 ppb ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
ThresholdMatrixSource
0.200 ppb SIDA water (food: hungarian-type salami) Literature corpus
0.200 ppb SIDA water (food: smoked cooked loin (pork)) Literature corpus
0.200 ppb SIDA water (food: extruded wheat flour) Literature corpus
0.430 ppb SIDA water (food: pink guava) Literature corpus
0.430 ppb SIDA water (food: reference standard (water)) Literature corpus
0.430 ppb SIDA water (food: longjing green tea infusion) Literature corpus
0.430 ppb SIDA water (food: coffee) Literature corpus
1.4 ppb SIDA water (food: japanese soy sauce) Literature corpus
1.4 ppb SIDA water (food: beef vegetable gravy) Literature corpus
1.4 ppb SIDA water (food: pork vegetable gravy) Literature corpus
1.8 ppb SIDA water (food: hand-squeezed grapefruit juice) Literature corpus
1.8 ppb SIDA water (food: litsea pungens fruit) Literature corpus

Every value in this group cites the same papers: PMID 33714268, PMID 10552650, PMID 19778056 +11 more. Listed once rather than on every row.

Retronasal / in-mouth · 5.0 ppb ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
0.050 ppb SIDA oil_retronasal Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
Flagged: 100× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source, shown rather than hidden.
5.0 ppb SIDA water_retronasal Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies —
5.0 ppb water_flavor Leffingwell —
Other matrix · 0.050 ppb–0.520 ppb ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
ThresholdMatrixSourcePaper
0.050 ppb SIDA oil_orthonasal Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
0.270 ppb SIDA starch Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
0.520 ppb SIDA wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: red wine) Literature corpus 33714268, 10552650, 19778056 +11

Only values we can attribute are listed. Where a compendium’s licence does not permit public attribution its figures are omitted, so every number here traces to a citable source.

Thresholds in published tables

MediumMedianRangeValuesPapersPapers agree?
air 0.2 µg/L air 6.3e-05–450 87 no (3.9 decades)
ethanol solution 7.11 ppb 0.5–7.12 44 yes
food matrix 0.325 ppb 0.04–5e+04 1614 no (3.0 decades)
oil 0.18 ppb 0.05–0.2 33 yes
starch or other 0.27 ppb 0.27–0.27 33 yes
unstated 0.45 ppb 4e-05–60 3431 no (2.4 decades)
water 0.43 ppb 0.0014–384 4240 yes

Numbers printed in open-access papers, grouped by the medium the table states. Median and full range; “agree” means two or more papers whose middle 80% of values sit within 100×. Not reviewed.

Is 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal safe to eat?

Not in FEMA GRAS publications 1–33. Of 3,367 listed flavoring substances, none match this compound or its other names. It may still be food-safe under other regulatory routes (FDA 21 CFR 172, EFSA, JECFA); check femaflavor.org for the authoritative current list.

3-(methylthio)-1-propanal questions

What does 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal smell like?

Sources describe 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal as cooked potato. It is one of the key food odorants identified by Dunkel et al. (2014).

Which foods contain 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal?

We list 1 ingredient that contain 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal.

How strong is 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal?

The median of 3 published odour thresholds in water is 0.400 ppb (range 0.200 to 1.0 ppb).

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

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Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). 3-(methylthio)-1-propanal compound data sheet. https://compkitchen.com/compound/3-%28methylthio%29-1-propanal. Accessed 2026-11-03.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compound_3_methylthio_1_propanal_compound_data_sheet_2026,
  title  = {3-(methylthio)-1-propanal compound data sheet},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compound/3-%28methylthio%29-1-propanal},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.