Acetylpyrazines, both natural and synthetic, serve as flavourants. The review deal briefly with methods of preparing these substances, such as synthesis by means of organometallic compounds, oxidation of ethylpyrazines, homolytic acetylation etc. Among these methods, homolytic acetylation using acetaldehyde or pyruvic acid as a source of acetyl radicals, by means of which various ring-substituted acetylpyrazines can be obtained, has recently become very important.