catechin

spicy phenol

Found in 121 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C15H14O6
Molecular weight: 290.27 g/mol
PubChem CID: 1203 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: bitter, astringent
Odor threshold — in a food matrix: 2.8 ppb – 227 ppb median 112 ppb · 6 published values · see all 6 with sources
Volatility: low
CAS number: 7295-85-4
Retention index: 16

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match

FEMA number: 4812
GRAS publication: GRAS 27
FEMA primary name: Palmitoylated Green Tea Extract Catechins

Reported use levels (ppm by food category)

Typical vs maximum reported addition levels in finished food. Use as a regulatory ceiling reference — verify against the current GRAS publication for your product category.

Food category	Typical (ppm)	Maximum (ppm)
baked goods	100	200
breakfast cereals	50	75
condiments and relishes	100	200
confections and frostings	50	100
fats and oils	200	500
fish products	250	300
meat products	250	300
nut products	50	100
other grains	150	300
poultry	250	300
snack foods	100	200
soft candy	50	100
soups	100	200

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33.

How this molecule is described

Sources disagree about odour more often than they disagree about chemistry. Rather than show one answer, here is every description on file with how many ingredient records carry it.

Descriptions on file

Ordered by how many independent descriptor streams give each wording, then by how often it appears. The bar is still replication — one source copied onto many ingredients scores high there — so the two can disagree.

bitter FlavorDB 2.0

120

astringent, bitter FlavorDB 2.0

bitter, astringent shown above Llm Adjudicated

—

Bars are the share of ingredient records carrying each description. High agreement means the sources replicate each other — not necessarily that they are right.

Published thresholds

6 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.

In a food matrix

2.8 ppb – 227 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
2.8 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	26978340, 27761066, 36570894 +5
46.2 ppb	water (food: tomato)	Literature corpus	38253713
47.1 ppb	water (food: beer)	Literature corpus	38698043, 41730959
177 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	29444125, 33084703, 35571930 +4
195 ppb	water (food: fish)	Literature corpus	40351771
227 ppb	water (food: grape)	Literature corpus	40843004

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.

Where you'd actually smell it

Odor Activity Value = measured concentration ÷ odor threshold (112.005 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 6 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
grape	245.0	2.19	—
beer	13.2	0.12	—
fish	12.0	0.11	—
tea	8.7	0.08	—
tomato	6.5	0.06	—

Concentrations from PubMed Central Open Access papers (free literature corpus, MIT-style licensed). Copper = OAV ≥ 10 (strongly perceptible). Green = OAV ≥ 1 (perceptible).

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain catechin. 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 catechin in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

578 cmpds

457 cmpds

617 cmpds

519 cmpds