ethyl acetate
fruity ester Key food odorantFound in 428 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.
- Formula
- C4H8O2
- Molecular weight
- 88.11 g/mol
- PubChem CID
- 8857 — full record on PubChem
Key food odorant (individualist)
Dunkel et al. 2014Identified 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.
Properties
- Odor description
- pineapple, fruity, solvent
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 2502 ppb – 6350 ppb median 4426 ppb · 2 published values · see all 25 with sources
- Volatility
- high
- CAS number
- 141-78-6
- Retention index
- 691
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 2414
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 3
- FEMA primary name
- ETHYL ACETATE-Acetic ether; Vinegar naphtha
Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.
How this molecule is described
Sources disagree about odour more often than they disagree about chemistry. Rather than show one answer, here is every description on file with how many ingredient records carry it.
Ordered by how many independent descriptor streams give each wording, then by how often it appears. The bar is still replication — one source copied onto many ingredients scores high there — so the two can disagree.
Bars are the share of ingredient records carrying each description. High agreement means the sources replicate each other — not necessarily that they are right.
Published thresholds
25 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
2502 ppb – 6350 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2502 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
| 6350 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 4 studies | — |
In a food matrix
0.100 ppb – 141 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.030 ppb | water (food: lime) | Literature corpus | 30972045 |
| Flagged: 198× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 0.048 ppb | water (food: tea) | Literature corpus | 31861730, 37188725, 41551788 |
| Flagged: 124× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 0.100 ppb | water (food: beer) | Literature corpus | 38531860 |
| 0.170 ppb SIDA | water (food: banana) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 17898464, 19282638 +36 |
| 0.580 ppb SIDA | water (food: melon) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 17898464, 19282638 +36 |
| 0.900 ppb | water (food: chocolate) | Literature corpus | 17898464 |
| 4.0 ppb | water (food: rice) | Literature corpus | 26973621, 38846797, 40467248 +1 |
| 4.2 ppb | water (food: orange) | Literature corpus | 37515910 |
| 5.0 ppb | water (food: sesame) | Literature corpus | 38583980 |
| 5.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: apple) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 17898464, 19282638 +36 |
| 6.9 ppb | water (food: onion) | Literature corpus | 28481316 |
| 10.3 ppb | water (food: beef) | Literature corpus | 40820009 |
| 13.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: bread) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 17898464, 19282638 +36 |
| 16.8 ppb | water (food: fish) | Literature corpus | 36950329 |
| 31.5 ppb | water (food: wine) | Literature corpus | 25939071, 36496598 |
| 39.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: unknown) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 19282638, 19753606 +15 |
| 139 ppb | water (food: peach) | Literature corpus | 37476402 |
| 141 ppb SIDA | water (food: peanut) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 17898464, 19282638 +36 |
| 892 ppb SIDA | water (food: olive oil) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 28671107, 40647095 |
| Flagged: 150× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 13500 ppb SIDA | water (food: reference standard (water)) | Literature corpus | 18570373, 17898464, 19282638 +36 |
| Flagged: 2269× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
Retronasal / in-mouth
4800 ppb – 6600 ppbTasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4800 ppb | water_flavor | Leffingwell | — |
| 6600 ppb SIDA | water_retronasal | Rychlik 1998 · 3 studies | — |
In air
870 ppbAirborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 870 ppb SIDA | air | Nagata 2003 | 18570373 |
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.
Where you'd actually smell it
Odor Activity Value = measured concentration ÷ odor threshold (6.9 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 25 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.
| Food | Concentration (ppb) | OAV | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| sorghum | 1000000.0 | 144928 ⚡ | PMID 37426966 |
| strawberry | 934000.0 | 135362 ⚡ | DOI |
| pomegranate | 500000.0 | 72464 ⚡ | PMID 28866014 |
| raspberry | 500000.0 | 72464 ⚡ | PMID 32316987 |
| liver | 400050.0 | 57978 ⚡ | PMID 41116102 |
| papaya | 400000.0 | 57971 ⚡ | PMID 31315213 |
| lard | 200000.0 | 28986 ⚡ | PMID 25036492 |
| apple | 133400.0 | 19333 ⚡ | PMID 32650562 |
| kiwifruit | 131700.0 | 19087 ⚡ | PMID 38918429 |
| spirit | 125000.0 | 18116 ⚡ | DOI |
| veal | 120000.0 | 17391 ⚡ | PMID 40951493 |
| wine | 113000.0 | 16377 ⚡ | PMID 26304447 |
| noodle | 104000.0 | 15072 ⚡ | PMID 36245479 |
| vinegar | 100000.0 | 14493 ⚡ | PMID 40619837 |
| cumin | 100000.0 | 14493 ⚡ | PMID 41436499 |
| mushroom | 50000.0 | 7246 ⚡ | PMID 40909340 |
| jmhj | 38742.5 | 5615 ⚡ | Corpus paper |
| loquat | 34990.0 | 5071 ⚡ | DOI |
| grape | 30000.0 | 4348 ⚡ | PMID 34623142 |
| beer | 25190.0 | 3651 ⚡ | DOI |
Concentrations from PubMed Central Open Access papers (free literature corpus, MIT-style licensed). Copper = OAV ≥ 10 (strongly perceptible). Green = OAV ≥ 1 (perceptible).
Found in
Measured impact first, then profile shareEvery ingredient known to contain ethyl acetate. 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 ethyl acetate in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.
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