ethanoic acid
dairy acid Key food odorantFound in 1 ingredient across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
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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: vinegar-like.
Properties
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 36000 ppb 1 published value · see all 21 with sources
- CAS number
- 64-19-7
Published thresholds
21 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
36000 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36000 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies | — |
In a food matrix
22000 ppb – 180000 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22000 ppb SIDA | water (food: japanese soy sauce) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| 22000 ppb SIDA | water (food: maillard model (glucose + proline)) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| 22000 ppb SIDA | water (food: maillard products) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| 22000 ppb SIDA | water (food: maillard model) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| 99000 ppb SIDA | water (food: reference standard (water)) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| 180000 ppb SIDA | water (food: beef vegetable gravy) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| 180000 ppb SIDA | water (food: pork vegetable gravy) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
Retronasal / in-mouth
378 ppb – 22000 ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 378 ppb SIDA | oil_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 22000 ppb | water_flavor | Leffingwell | — |
| 22000 ppb SIDA | water_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
In air
6.0 ppbAirborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.0 ppb | air | Nagata 2003 | — |
Other matrix
124 ppb – 135 ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 124 ppb SIDA | oil_orthonasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 124 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: gouda cheese) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| 124 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| 124 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa powder) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| 135 ppb SIDA | oil (oil) (food: hungarian-type salami) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| 31140 ppb SIDA | starch | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| Flagged: 231× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 41000 ppb SIDA | wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: rum / red wine) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| Flagged: 304× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 75521 ppb SIDA | ethanol/water 40/60 (food: rum (aged)) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| Flagged: 559× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 76000 ppb SIDA | ethanol/water (food: rum / red wine) | Literature corpus | 30779560, 32625638, 18570373 +65 |
| Flagged: 563× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
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 | 210 µg/L air | 0.013–5.5e+05 | 23 | 19 | no (7.2 decades) |
| ethanol solution | 1.6e+05 ppb | 2.4e+04–3.36e+05 | 14 | 12 | yes |
| food matrix | 5e+04 ppb | 0.013–2e+08 | 61 | 56 | no (3.3 decades) |
| model wine or beer | 2e+05 ppb | 2e+05–2e+05 | 1 | 1 | one paper |
| oil | 350 ppb | 114–1.14e+05 | 10 | 9 | yes |
| starch or other | 3.114e+04 ppb | 3.11e+04–3.11e+04 | 3 | 3 | yes |
| unstated | 3e+04 ppb | 0.0011–5e+06 | 128 | 110 | no (4.2 decades) |
| water | 2.2e+04 ppb | 0.022–6e+05 | 50 | 49 | no (3.6 decades) |
Found in
Measured impact first, then profile shareEvery ingredient known to contain ethanoic acid. 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 ethanoic acid in it.
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