2-phenylacetaldehyde

green aldehyde Key food odorant

Found in 7 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.

Key food odorant (intermediary)

Dunkel et al. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants — appears in 5–25% of foods.

Source: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 7124–7143

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 4.0 ppb 2 published values · see all 30 with sources
CAS number: 122-78-1
Retention index: 1041

Not in FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. Of 3,367 listed flavoring substances, none match this compound name. May still be food-safe under other regulatory routes (FDA 21 CFR 172, EFSA, JECFA) — check femaflavor.org for the authoritative current list.

Published thresholds

30 measured values from the literature. Grouped by what was actually measured — a threshold smelled in clean water, tasted in the mouth, or measured in a real food are three different quantities and are not pooled.

Orthonasal, in clean water

4.0 ppb

The reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
4.0 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
4.0 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

In a food matrix

0.050 ppb – 91.0 ppb

Measured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.050 ppb SIDA	water (food: rum)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
0.280 ppb SIDA	water (food: tomato)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
0.440 ppb SIDA	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
0.467 ppb SIDA	water (food: coffee)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
0.500 ppb SIDA	water (food: pepper)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
1.4 ppb SIDA	water (food: chocolate)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
2.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: sesame)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
2.8 ppb SIDA	water (food: honey)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
2.8 ppb SIDA	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
4.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: japanese soy sauce)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
4.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: beef vegetable gravy)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
4.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: pork vegetable gravy)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
4.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: wheat porridge / bread crumb)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
5.5 ppb SIDA	water (food: ginger)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
7.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: fish)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
10.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	33714268
14.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: cheese)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
16.9 ppb SIDA	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
22.1 ppb SIDA	water (food: garlic)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
24.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: hungarian-type salami)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
47.8 ppb SIDA	water (food: soy sauce)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
91.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: lamb)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
650 ppb SIDA	water (food: wine)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
Flagged: 162× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
1336 ppb SIDA	water (food: bread)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
Flagged: 334× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
1346 ppb SIDA	water (food: beef)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
Flagged: 336× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.

Other matrix

22.0 ppb

Measured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
22.0 ppb SIDA	oil_orthonasal	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—
22.0 ppb SIDA	oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584
22.0 ppb SIDA	oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa powder)	Literature corpus	33714268, 32251584

Only values we can attribute are listed. Where a compendium's licence does not permit public attribution its figures are omitted here, so every number on this page traces to a citable source.

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain 2-phenylacetaldehyde. Ingredients with a measured concentration come first, ranked by odour activity; the rest follow by how large a share of that ingredient's profile this molecule is. The figure beside each is how many different compounds that ingredient has in total — not the concentration of 2-phenylacetaldehyde in it.

62 cmpds

65 cmpds

70 cmpds

364 cmpds