Propanoic acid reaction with potassium permanganate I was conducting a lab where we have to identify/justify how functional groups affect the oxidation of a molecule. 

I used propene, propanone, and propanoic acid for this reaction. From what I have learned in class, ketones and carboxylic acids cannot get oxidized. However, in my experiment the ketone somehow is not getting oxidized while the propanoic acid is. I tried using butanoic acid just to be sure but it turns out that it gets oxidized as well. I have also made sure that there are no contaminants. I used 4 ml of 100% propanoic acid with 0.003 mol of $\ce{KMnO4}$.
Can you detail the concentrations of both the acid as well as $\ce{KMnO4}$ and also the time it took to de-colourise?

I tried an experiment however, I only have Glacial Acetic Acid, which didn't seem to react ( as the smell was still prominent).

I can suggest you a simple trick to analyse whether it is decomposing. Smell Propionic acid before adding $\ce{KMnO4}$. Then smell it after the colour of $\ce{KMnO4}$ is gone. Keep adding $\ce{KMnO4}$ till the pink colour stay(similar to titration). Then smell again. If the smell is gone then the carboxylic acid is oxidised.

There are 2 possible oxidation products of carboxylic acid:


Ketone
Carbon Dioxide


Both can be pretty obvious. Ketone will smell differently than the acid(more like nail polish remover) and Carbon Dioxide should be visible because of effervescence.