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ethyl caprylate

fruity ester Key food odorant

Found in 21 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. Characteristic odor: fruity, waxy.

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

Properties

Odor description
fruity
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
0.700 ppb – 147 ppb median 73.8 ppb · 2 published values · see all 17 with sources
CAS number
106-32-1
Retention index
1338
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.

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.

fruity shown above FlavorDB 2.0, Flavordb Odor Column 2 sources agree
16
fermented, clove FlavorDB 2.0, Flavordb Odor Column 2 sources agree
1
pear FlavorDB 2.0, Flavordb Odor Column 2 sources agree
1
fatty and fruity FlavorDB 2.0
1
fruity and rosy aroma FlavorDB 2.0
1
fruity, floral FlavorDB 2.0
1

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

17 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

0.700 ppb – 147 ppb

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

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
0.700 ppb SIDA water Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —
147 ppb SIDA water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky) Literature corpus 30779560, 18570373, 15826061 +22

In a food matrix

1.9 ppb – 123 ppb

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

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
0.022 ppb water (food: beer) Literature corpus 17499755, 33889833
Flagged: 191× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.032 ppb water (food: tea) Literature corpus 41551788
Flagged: 132× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
1.9 ppb SIDA water (food: grape) Literature corpus 30779560, 18570373, 15826061 +22
2.0 ppb water (food: rice) Literature corpus 26973621, 38846797, 40467248 +1
2.4 ppb water (food: cheese) Literature corpus 42160145
3.5 ppb water (food: orange) Literature corpus 37515910
5.0 ppb SIDA water (food: apple) Literature corpus 30779560, 18570373, 15826061 +22
5.0 ppb SIDA water (food: goat milk) Literature corpus 30779560, 18570373, 15826061 +22
76.0 ppb water (food: wine) Literature corpus 25939071, 32657431, 41365581
108 ppb SIDA water (food: unknown) Literature corpus 18570373, 25717332, 27664650 +2
123 ppb water (food: lime) Literature corpus 15826061, 41048468
1196 ppb SIDA water (food: bread) Literature corpus 18570373, 28274420, 28490062 +4
Flagged: 283× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.

Retronasal / in-mouth

0.100 ppb

Tasted rather than smelled — a different sense, not comparable.

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
0.100 ppb SIDA water_retronasal Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —

Other matrix

4.5 ppb – 38.0 ppb

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

Threshold Matrix Source Paper
4.5 ppb SIDA wine matrix (12% ethanol) (food: red wine) Literature corpus 30779560, 18570373, 15826061 +22
38.0 ppb SIDA starch Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies —

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 ethyl caprylate. 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 ethyl caprylate in it.

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