acetic acid methyl ester

fruity ester

Found in 2 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

Properties

Odor threshold — in water, medium unconfirmed: 3.0 ppb 1 published value · see all 3 with sources
CAS number: 79-20-9

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match

FEMA number: 4014
GRAS publication: GRAS 20
FEMA primary name: (Methylthio)acetic acid methyl ester

Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. 1 related FEMA record for this name — verify the exact substance for regulatory use.

Published thresholds

3 measured values from the literature. Grouped by what was actually measured — a threshold smelled in clean water, tasted in the mouth, or measured in a real food are three different quantities and are not pooled.

In water, medium unconfirmed

3.0 ppb

Reported as water, but the medium could not be confirmed from the source — not used for OAV.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
3.0 ppb	water (unverified; relabelled from air, audit 2026-10-14)	PMC open access	—

In air

1700 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1700 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—

Other matrix

50.0 ppb

Measured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
50.0 ppb	wine	PMC open access	—

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

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.

Medium	Median	Range	Values	Papers	Papers agree?
food matrix	5.1 ppb	5.1–5.1	1	1	one paper

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain acetic acid methyl ester. 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 acetic acid methyl ester in it.

443 cmpds

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