3-hexenoic acid
sour acidFound in 12 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.
- Formula
- C6H10O2
- Molecular weight
- 114.14 g/mol
- PubChem CID
- 20200 — full record on PubChem
Properties
- Odor description
- fatty, sour, sweaty, cheesy
- Odor threshold
- 1300.0 ppb
- Volatility
- high
- CAS number
- 4219-24-3
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 3170
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 4
- FEMA primary name
- 3-HEXENOIC ACID
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.
Where you'd actually smell it
Odor Activity Value = measured concentration ÷ odor threshold (1300.0 ppb). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.
| Food | Concentration (ppb) | OAV | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| turkey | 1240.0 | 0.95 | PMID 15713037 |
Concentrations from PubMed Central Open Access papers (free literature corpus, MIT-style licensed). Copper = OAV ≥ 10 (strongly perceptible). Green = OAV ≥ 1 (perceptible).
Found in
Measured impact first, then profile shareEvery ingredient known to contain 3-hexenoic acid. 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 3-hexenoic acid in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.
The inverted compound index is a Pro feature — reverse-search any of 5,139 flavor molecules across the full graph.
Get a molecule-level pairing breakdown each week — which ingredients share a compound, and why it matters at the table. Free, no spam.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Try the pairing tools to see which ingredient combinations rely on 3-hexenoic acid, or compare two ingredients side-by-side.