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Compound sheet

Aroma molecule · furan

5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde

Smells ofcaramel, sweet, maple, almond

Found in 3 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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Formula
—
Mass
110.11 g/mol
CAS
620-02-0
PubChem
—
Threshold
16,000 ppb
Class
furan
Status
Aroma-active

01How little it takes

  • in waterpapers disagree 1,105
  • in a foodpapers disagree 1,110
  • in alcohol 241,160
  • in wine/beerpapers disagree 20,000
  • in oil 685

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

02Where it turns up

  • Meat & fish1
  • Drinks1
  • Other1

of the 3 ingredients that contain it, by food group

03What it travels with

Too few ingredients to say what it travels with.

What does 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde smell like?

Sources describe it as caramel, sweet, maple, almond.

How this molecule is described

  • caramel FlavorDB 2.0
  • almond, caramel, burnt sugar, spice, maple, burntsugar FlavorDB 2.0
  • caramel, sweet, maple, almond shown above Llm Adjudicated

Ordered by how many independent descriptor streams give each wording, then by how often it appears. The bar is replication (one source copied onto many ingredients scores high), not corroboration.

Which foods contain 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde?

We list 3 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 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde in it. ✓n = sources that recorded the link.

How strong is 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde?

Our working odour threshold is 16000.0 ppb, from 1 source (none by SIDA, so treat it as approximate).

Thresholds in published tables

MediumMedianRangeValuesPapersPapers agree?
air 1110 µg/L air 500–1.11e+03 64 yes
ethanol solution 2.412e+05 ppb 1.6e+04–4.66e+05 22 yes
food matrix 1110 ppb 1.11–2e+07 1111 no (2.6 decades)
model wine or beer 2e+04 ppb 2e+04–2e+04 11 one paper
oil 685 ppb 260–1.11e+03 22 yes
unstated 1000 ppb 0.5–2.4e+06 3533 no (3.1 decades)
water 1105 ppb 0.005–6e+03 1817 no (2.6 decades)

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
963

Is 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde 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.

5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde questions

What does 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde smell like?

Sources describe 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde as caramel, sweet, maple and almond.

Which foods contain 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde?

We list 3 ingredients that contain 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde.

How strong is 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde?

Our working odour threshold for 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde is 16,000 ppb.

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Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde compound data sheet. https://compkitchen.com/compound/5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde. Accessed 2026-11-03.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compound_5_methyl_2_furancarboxaldehyde_compound_data_sheet_2026,
  title  = {5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde compound data sheet},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compound/5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}
}

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