Extremely sharp, pungent acidic odor — biting and eye-watering in concentration, reminiscent of vinegar but more penetrating and stinging. At high dilution it contributes a sour, slightly sweaty acidic facet sometimes used to add realism to honey, leather or animalic accords.AI · claude-opus-4-7
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Perfume and Flavor Chemicals, page 578.
Colorless mobile liquid.
Miscible with water, alcohol, propylene glycol, glycerin, perfume and flavor oils.
Pungent odor giving a stinging sensation on the mucous membranes.
Sour taste in proper dilution — lower than 50 ppm without stinging or burning.
This acid finds use in flavors, usually not incorporated in the flavor composition because of its high acidity which is a threat to the esters and alcohols in a flavor, but it is used as a separate additive to the functional, final consumer product.
It is also used as a preservative in certain countries.
Produced from carbon monoxide by treatment under heat and pressure with water or with sodium hydroxide solution. The latter method produces the sodium salt of formic acid.