The Butyric Acid Flavour Standard is a GMP-certified sensory reference used to train professional tasting panels to detect rancid, “baby vomit” off-flavours caused by butyric acid in the food and beverage industry. Enables detection at 0.5 mg/L threshold levels, helping quality teams identify Clostridium bacterial contamination, lipid oxidation, or microbial spoilage before products reach consumers.
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Butyric acid flavour is a short-chain fatty acid profile characterised by a pungent, sour, and oily aroma. In sensory science, it is commonly described as “acidic” or “rancid”. While it contributes to the flavour profile of certain aged cheeses, it is considered a severe “off-flavour” or “taint” in brewing, water, and most dairy applications.
WHAT CAUSES BUTYRIC ACID OFF-FLAVOUR?
Butyric acid contamination usually occurs when microbial activity or chemical degradation processes affect ingredients or production systems.
– Bacterial Contamination: Specifically, anaerobic bacteria like Clostridium, which can infect wort in brewing or raw ingredients in food production. – Microbial Spoilage: Poor hygiene during the early stages of fermentation or improper storage of raw materials. – Lipid Oxidation: The chemical breakdown of fats and oils, leading to “rancid” notes in dairy-based products. – pH Fluctuations: The intensity of the flavour is highly pH-dependent; lower pH levels significantly increase the aroma’s potency and volatility.
USING THE BUTYRIC ACID FLAVOUR STANDARD FOR SENSORY TRAINING
The Butyric Acid flavour standard is used to calibrate human “analytical instruments”—your sensory panel. By using a GMP-grade reference, tasters can:
1. Establish Thresholds: Recognise the compound at levels as low as 0.5 mg/L. 2. Differentiate Taints: Distinguish between Butyric Acid and other acidic off-flavours like Isovaleric Acid (sweaty/cheesy). 3. Ensure Consistency: Align panel results with ASBC and EBC international standards
HOW TO RECOGNISE BUTYRIC ACID OFF-FLAVOUR: SENSORY TERMS
Professional tasters use specific standardised nomenclature to describe the presence of Butyric Acid. Depending on the concentration, common terms include:
– Baby Sick / Vomit: The most common descriptor for high-intensity contamination. – Rancid Cheese: A pungent, oily, and sour dairy note. – Putrid: Indicative of advanced organic breakdown. – Strong Cheese: A sharp, lingering acidic character.
WHAT ARE THE PROFESSIONAL APPLICATIONS OF THE BUTYRIC ACID FLAVOUR STANDARD?
The FlavorActiV Butyric Acid Flavour Standard serves several professional applications across different industries, including:
– Brewing & Beverage Production: Identify and control off-flavours in beer, wine, other beverages; ensure quality and consistency – Dairy & Cheese Manufacturing: Monitor off-flavour development during cheese ripening and milk fermentation – Food Manufacturing: Detect contamination and spoilage in processed foods; maintain product integrity – Quality Control & Sensory Evaluation: Train and calibrate panels to detect butyric acid in food and beverages; enhance operational assessments
OTHER INFORMATION
– Beer Flavour Wheel Number: 0614 – Flavour Levels: 0.5 – 15 mg/L – pH Sensitivity: The strength of the butyric acid flavour is highly dependent on the pH of the product. The lower the pH, the stronger the flavour. – Standard Certifications: The Butyric Acid Flavour Standard is a recommended sensory reference standard by the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) and the European Brewing Chemists (EBC).
Ensure your product’s quality by using FlavorActiV’s Butyric Acid Flavour Standard for effective off-flavour detection. Take control of your product’s sensory profile today and maintain consistency across all your manufacturing processes.
Order Your Butyric Acid Flavour Standard Today
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the Butyric Acid Flavour Standard used for? The Butyric Acid Flavour Standard is used for sensory training and off-flavour detection. It allows professional tasting panels to recognise the pungent rancid aroma associated with Butyric Acid contamination in food and beverages.
Why does Butyric Acid smell like rancid cheese or vomit? Butyric Acid is a short-chain fatty acid produced during microbial activity and fat breakdown, which creates strong sensory characteristics often described as rancid, sour, or vomit-like.
Which industries use Butyric Acid sensory training? Butyric Acid flavour standards are widely used in brewing, beverage manufacturing, dairy production, food processing, and sensory science laboratories.
FlavorActiV GMP Flavour Standards
Only Pharmaceutical Quality GMP Flavour Standards provide sufficient quality for professional sensory panels to train and validate with.
We produce encapsulated GMP (Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practice) Flavour Standards that are safe to both smell and drink. The compounds within our capsules impart the aroma, taste and mouthfeel of a specific defect or positive flavour into a beverage for the purposes of taster training, calibration and quality control.
Our individual flavour GMP Flavour Standards are sold by flavour, each flavour pack contains 5 capsules, each separately blister packaged. Our sensory kits contain a mixture of flavours, each separately blister packaged, read the product description for flavour details.
We ship globally, and have over 20 years of experience at it. Our GMP Pharmaceutical Flavour Standards are produced to the highest standards, and as such, their shelf-life is strong and their quality consistent.
FlavorActiV’s flavour centre is the world’s only pharmaceutically run facility dedicated to the production of flavour reference standards. The Flavour Centre is a state-of-the-art facility housed within the campus of world-renowned Quay Pharma near Liverpool in the U.K.
The Flavour Centre was designed by FlavorActiV from the ground up at the direct request of global customers as they looked to move away from inferior food grade ‘certified flavour standards’ to GMP Pharma, a standard that ensures safe, stable, traceable, consistent and long shelf-life products.
All FlavorActiV’s industry-leading encapsulated flavour standards are manufactured following GMP at our Flavour Centre. All aspects of manufacture are overseen by Quay Pharma who are audited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory agency (MHRA). We also welcome customer audits.
Only FlavorActiV GMP flavour standard capsules bear our mark of authenticity.
We brand each of our capsules so that our customers know they’re getting the Pharmaceutical GMP Quality that only FlavorActiV provide.
Industry leading packaging and shelf-life
FlavorActiV flavour standards are blister packaged, which extends shelf-life and protects capsules from potential contamination. The average shelf-life of FlavorActiV flavour standards is 18 months to 4 years, depending on the flavour compounds.
We will never ship in pots or plastic packaging, here’s why…
Blister packaging protects capsules from the environment until they are ready for use. Blister packaging greatly reduces the amount of headspace for possible flavour escape. As each capsule individually blister packaged, making use of one capsule still leaves all others protected. FlavorActiV Flavour Standard packaging is 100% recyclable, as opposed to polypropylene which is not widely recycled.
Pots are semi-porous, they allow molecules to pass through and flavour to be lost, their significant headspace also adds to substantial flavour escape as a gas, even when using just one capsule all those remaining in the pot are exposed.
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