Aroma molecule · alcohol
3-methylthiopropanol
Smells ofonion, potato, soup, sulfurous, sweet
Found in 425 ingredients. 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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01How little it takes
- in water 123
- in a food 500
- in alcoholpapers disagree 1,000
- in wine/beerpapers disagree 1,000
ppb, log scale · tick = median of published values, bar = full range, from open-access paper tables (not reviewed)
02Where it turns up
- Fruit108
- Herbs & spices66
- Vegetables65
- Grains, nuts & fats60
- Dairy24
- Drinks20
- Meat & fish14
- Other68
of the 425 ingredients that contain it, by food group
03What it travels with
line weight = ingredients carrying both, of 425 · only molecules found with it at least 1.5× as often as across all foods
What does 3-methylthiopropanol smell like?
Sources describe it as onion, potato, soup, sulfurous, sweet, vegetable. The key-food-odorant survey gives potato, cabbage.
It is a key food odorant (individualist): identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 151 individualist odorants, which appear in under 5% of foods and carry the signature of specific ingredients. Source: Dunkel et al. 2014, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 7124–7143
How this molecule is described
Also filed as: 3-(methylthio) propanol · 3-methyl thiopropanol · 3-methylthio propanol — same molecule, unified here.
Which foods contain 3-methylthiopropanol?
We list 425 ingredients 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-methylthiopropanol in it. ✓n = sources that recorded the link.
How strong is 3-methylthiopropanol?
In a food matrix: 36.0 ppb, from 1 published value.
Published thresholds
3 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.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36.0 ppb | water (food: reference standard (water)) | Literature corpus | 26213023, 32657431, 35396186 +1 |
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.0 ppb SIDA | water_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 180 ppb | wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: red wine) | Literature corpus | 26213023, 32657431, 35396186 +1 |
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
| Medium | Median | Range | Values | Papers | Papers agree? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| air | 36 µg/L air | 0.2–500 | 5 | 5 | no (3.4 decades) |
| ethanol solution | 1000 ppb | 0.0015–2.11e+03 | 8 | 8 | no (6.1 decades) |
| food matrix | 500 ppb | 11.8–2.11e+06 | 27 | 25 | yes |
| model wine or beer | 1000 ppb | 1e+03–1e+03 | 1 | 1 | one paper |
| unstated | 856.1 ppb | 0.02–6.68e+05 | 45 | 41 | no (2.4 decades) |
| water | 123.1 ppb | 36–500 | 12 | 11 | 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.
- Retention index
- 1618
What is it found with?
Of the 425 ingredients that carry 3-methylthiopropanol, 424 also carry isobutyraldehyde, 423 2-phenylethanol and 423 3-methyl-1-butanol. These are the most frequent companions among molecules that turn up with 3-methylthiopropanol at least 1.5 times as often as they do across all foods; the very common molecules found nearly everywhere are left out because they say nothing about it.
Is 3-methylthiopropanol safe to eat?
3-methylthiopropanol is listed by FEMA as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use as a flavoring: FEMA number 3415, published in GRAS 7. Check current FDA and EFSA guidance for your market and use level.
- FEMA number
- 3415 ✓ exact match
- Publication
- GRAS 7
- FEMA name
- 3-(METHYLTHIO) PROPANOL (matched on 3-(methylthio) propanol, another name for this molecule)
Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance; check the source publication for current ppm guidance.
Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1–33.
See all 425 ingredients with Pro
The free page shows the first 8. The inverted compound index is a Pro feature: reverse-search any of 5,139 flavor molecules across the full graph.
3-methylthiopropanol questions
What does 3-methylthiopropanol smell like?
Sources describe 3-methylthiopropanol as onion, potato, soup, sulfurous and sweet. It is one of the key food odorants identified by Dunkel et al. (2014).
Which foods contain 3-methylthiopropanol?
We list 425 ingredients that contain 3-methylthiopropanol.
How strong is 3-methylthiopropanol?
The median of 1 published odour thresholds in a food is 36.0 ppb.
What molecules are found with 3-methylthiopropanol?
The molecules most often found in the same ingredients are isobutyraldehyde, 2-phenylethanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol and 3-methylbutanal.
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Cite this analysis
Compound Kitchen (2026). 3-methylthiopropanol compound data sheet. https://compkitchen.com/compound/3-methylthiopropanol. Accessed 2026-11-03.
@misc{compkitchen_compound_3_methylthiopropanol_compound_data_sheet_2026,
title = {3-methylthiopropanol compound data sheet},
author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://compkitchen.com/compound/3-methylthiopropanol},
note = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}
}
Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.