propanoic acid, 2-methyl-, ethyl ester

fruity ester Key food odorant

Found in 1 ingredient across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

Key food odorant (intermediary)

Dunkel et al. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants — appears in 5–25% of foods. Characteristic odor: fruity.

Source: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 7124–7143

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 0.060 ppb – 4.5 ppb median 0.100 ppb · 3 published values · see all 12 with sources
CAS number: 97-62-1

Not in FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. Of 3,367 listed flavoring substances, none match this compound name. May still be food-safe under other regulatory routes (FDA 21 CFR 172, EFSA, JECFA) — check femaflavor.org for the authoritative current list.

Published thresholds

12 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

0.060 ppb – 4.5 ppb

The reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.060 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies	—
0.100 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
4.5 ppb	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5

In a food matrix

0.020 ppb – 0.100 ppb

Measured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.020 ppb	water (food: hand-squeezed grapefruit juice)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5
0.089 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5
0.100 ppb	water (food: japanese soy sauce)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5

Retronasal / in-mouth

0.030 ppb – 0.750 ppb

Tasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.030 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
0.750 ppb SIDA	oil_retronasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

In air

0.022 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.022 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—

Other matrix

1.2 ppb – 14.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.2 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
1.2 ppb	oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5
14.0 ppb	wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: red wine)	Literature corpus	32619948, 32630090, 33995294 +5

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	0.3 µg/L air	0.00011–57.5	15	11	no (5.1 decades)
ethanol solution	15 ppb	1.5e-05–58	14	11	yes
food matrix	15 ppb	0.02–1.5e+04	23	19	no (4.2 decades)
model wine or beer	15 ppb	15–15	3	3	yes
unstated	41.28 ppb	0.01–900	48	43	no (2.8 decades)
water	0.249 ppb	0.089–58	27	17	no (2.1 decades)

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain propanoic acid, 2-methyl-, ethyl 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 propanoic acid, 2-methyl-, ethyl ester in it.

wine

beverage alcoholic

565 cmpds

Into the chemistry?

Get a molecule-level pairing breakdown each week — which ingredients share a compound, and why it matters at the table. Free, no spam.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Try the pairing tools to see which ingredient combinations rely on propanoic acid, 2-methyl-, ethyl ester, or compare two ingredients side-by-side.