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4-methyl-2-methoxyphenol

spicy phenol 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 (individualist)

Dunkel et al. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 151 individualist odorants — appears in <5% of foods, carries the diagnostic signature of specific ingredients. Characteristic odor: smoky, spicy.

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

Properties

Odor threshold
21.0 ppb
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.

Thresholds in published tables

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

MediumMedianRangeValuesPapersPapers agree?
air 90 µg/L air 90–90 11 one paper
ethanol solution 315 ppb 315–315 33 yes
food matrix 65 ppb 10–9.5e+03 97 no (2.8 decades)
model wine or beer 65 ppb 65–65 11 one paper
unstated 315 ppb 20–315 1512 yes
water 23 ppb 8.92–30 44 yes

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain 4-methyl-2-methoxyphenol. 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 4-methyl-2-methoxyphenol in it.

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