Tony Cenicola/The New York TimesSeeds from the herb fenugreek, above, produced the syrupy odor from a fragrance plant in North Bergen, N.J., New York City officials said. Updated, 6:10 p.m. | It wafted, seductively, over Staten Island, Brooklyn, then Manhattan, a smell that was sweet but indecipherable. And now the mayor has revealed that the likely source was fenugreek seeds used to produce fragrances at a plant in Hudson County in New Jersey.
The first wave arrived in October 2005, drawing thousands of New Yorkers onto the streets for a lively debate. Was it maple syrup? Caramel? A freshly baked pie? But as quickly as it arrived, it had vanished. Then, last month, the smell returned.
Both times, the city’s police and 311 information lines were flooded with calls. Many feared bioterrorism cloaked in an pleasant aroma.
On Thursday, the city announced that the mystery had been solved. The probable source of the odor was a plant operated by Fruitarom in North Bergen, N.J., which processes seeds of the herb fenugreek to produce fragrances.
Not seeking to single out Frutarom, the mayor said that the city, in coordination with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, was “still investigating” other possible factories or plants that might have contributed to the odors.
“Let me say at the top that the smell that everybody reported and has been reporting for a long time, from back, one of the earliest times was four or five years ago, has never been a health hazard,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said. “In this day and age, we must take every possible threat to our safety seriously no matter how innocuous it might be.”
He added, “It wasn’t exactly akin to searching for a needle in a haystack, but a smell over a very large area.”
The city even revised its protocols to respond to such “maple syrup events” to improve response times; it analyzed winds, tides and atmospheric conditions.
“The clues began falling into place,” the mayor said.
Clue No. 1: Most of the complaints seemed to be coming from the Upper West Side and the Morningside Heights sections of Manhattan.
Clue No. 2: The winds were moving from west to east. Other clues suggested that the source might be food-additive-making plants in Hudson or Bergen Counties.
Clue No. 3: Winds at the times of the smells were blowing at speeds fast enough to move odors across the Hudson River, but not so fast that the smells would quickly disperse.
And Clue No. 4: The city’s Office of Emergency Management compiled a list of commercial and industrial facilities in the target area that were in the business of making odor-producing substances; three of them happened to be in the business of making additives and fragrances.
Those clues, the mayor said, enabled city officials, in tandem with their counterparts in New Jersey, to conclude that the Frutarom plant was the likely source of the odors.
The mayor repeatedly mispronounced the name of the word fenugreek as “fenugeek.” According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, fenugreek has historically been used for a variety of health conditions, including menopausal symptoms and digestive problems, and for inducing childbirth. Today, fenugreek is used to treat diabetes and loss of appetite, to stimulate milk production in breastfeeding and to treat inflammation of the skin.
Last month, the mayor said, inspectors from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection captured four odor samples, three in Manhattan and one west of the George Washington Bridge.
The substance was a kind of ester, the mayor said, a compound created by interaction of an alcohol and an acid, in this case harmless. Its maker: Frutarom, an industrial company based in Haifa, Israel, that processes fenugreek seeds to make fragrances at its plant in North Bergen. (Frutarom produces, among other things, a fenugreek extract called FenuLife.)
“The mystery of the maple-syrup mist has finally been solved,” the mayor said. “Frutarom does not appear to be breaking any rules and New Jersey’s D.E.P. will confirm that as well.”
On future days when the plant processes seeds, a similar odor will recur.
“It just happens to be one of the aromas we will have to live with,” the mayor said.
Mr. Bloomberg, who also used the occasion to praise the increase in the number of city students taking Advanced Placement exams, was flanked by Joseph F. Bruno, commissioner of emergency management.
The mayor emphasized that there were dozens of calls during the most recent smell episode last month.
“I never smelled it but for the record I do like maple-sugar syrup on my French toast,” the mayor added.
Frutarom appeared to be blindsided by the mayor’s announcement. In a statement, a spokesman for the company, Jason Fink, said that its apparent contribution to the recurring odor
“came as a surprise
to us.”
Inside the New Jersey factory on Thursday, where the air was thick with a candy-like scent, a secretary said that “nobody has ever complained about the smells.”
Sewell Chan and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
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