butanedione
fruity ketone Key food odorantFound in 2 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.
Key food odorant (generalist)
Dunkel et al. 2014Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 16 generalist odorants — appears in >25% of foods, typically from generic Maillard, lipid-oxidation, or fermentation pathways. Characteristic odor: buttery.
Properties
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 2.8 ppb – 18.0 ppb median 5.5 ppb · 4 published values · see all 24 with sources
- CAS number
- 431-03-8
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 2370
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 3
- FEMA primary name
- DIACETYL-2,3-Butanedione; Biacetyl; Dimethyl
Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.
Published thresholds
24 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.
Orthonasal, in clean water
2.8 ppb – 18.0 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.8 ppb | water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 4.4 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
| 6.5 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies | — |
| 18.0 ppb SIDA | water | Dunkel 2014 | — |
In a food matrix
0.940 ppb – 15.0 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.940 ppb | water (food: longjing green tea infusion) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 0.960 ppb | water (food: green tea infusion (jingshan cha)) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 1.0 ppb | water (food: reference standard (water)) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 4.0 ppb | water (food: smoked cooked loin (pork)) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 6.5 ppb | water (food: wheat porridge / bread crumb) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 6.5 ppb | water (food: extruded wheat flour) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 15.0 ppb | water (food: coffee) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
Retronasal / in-mouth
5.0 ppb – 32.5 ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.0 ppb | water_flavor | Leffingwell | — |
| 5.0 ppb SIDA | water_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies | — |
| 32.5 ppb SIDA | oil_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies | — |
In air
0.050 ppbAirborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.050 ppb | air | Nagata 2003 | — |
Other matrix
2.8 ppb – 100 ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.8 ppb | ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 2.8 ppb | ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged)) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 2.8 ppb | ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (young)) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 4.5 ppb | oil (sunflower oil) (food: gouda cheese) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| 6.5 ppb SIDA | starch | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 10.0 ppb SIDA | oil_orthonasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 25.0 ppb SIDA | cellulose | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 66.0 ppb SIDA | beer_orthonasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 100 ppb | wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
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? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| air | 0.059 µg/L air | 0.00018–2.9e+03 | 9 | 7 | no (4.9 decades) |
| ethanol solution | 52.5 ppb | 2.8–100 | 4 | 4 | yes |
| food matrix | 5 ppb | 0.05–206 | 27 | 19 | no (2.8 decades) |
| model wine or beer | 100 ppb | 100–100 | 1 | 1 | one paper |
| not applicable | 6 ppb | 6–6 | 1 | 1 | one paper |
| oil | 4.5 ppb | 0.9–1e+04 | 5 | 4 | no (4.0 decades) |
| starch or other | 6.5 ppb | 6.5–6.5 | 3 | 3 | yes |
| unstated | 5 ppb | 0.05–3.26e+04 | 39 | 35 | no (4.2 decades) |
| water | 4.685 ppb | 5e-06–1.01e+03 | 30 | 28 | no (2.4 decades) |
Found in
Measured impact first, then profile shareEvery ingredient known to contain butanedione. 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 butanedione in it.
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