ethyl octanoate
fruity ester Key food odorantFound in 92 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.
- Formula
- C10H20O2
- Molecular weight
- 172.26 g/mol
- PubChem CID
- 7799 — full record on PubChem
Key food odorant (intermediary)
Dunkel et al. 2014Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 57 intermediary odorants — appears in 5–25% of foods. Characteristic odor: fruity, waxy.
Properties
- Odor description
- fruity, wine, waxy, apricot, brandy
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 0.700 ppb – 147 ppb median 73.8 ppb · 2 published values · see all 17 with sources
- Volatility
- medium
- CAS number
- 106-32-1
- Retention index
- 1399
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 4280
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 23
- FEMA primary name
- 2-(4-Methyl-5-thiazolyl)ethyl octanoate
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 | 1 | 1 |
| soft candy | 0.5 | 1.5 |
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.
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.
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 ppbThe 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 ppbMeasured 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 ppbTasted 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 ppbMeasured 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.
Where you'd actually smell it
Odor Activity Value = measured concentration ÷ odor threshold (3.46 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 17 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.
| Food | Concentration (ppb) | OAV | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| grape | 11900.0 | 3439 ⚡ | PMID 11308345 |
| honey | 10000.0 | 2890 ⚡ | DOI |
| wine | 3622.5 | 1047 ⚡ | PMID 26304447 |
| orange | 1084.0 | 313 ⚡ | Corpus paper |
| lime | 719.0 | 208 ⚡ | Corpus paper |
| beer | 600.0 | 173 ⚡ | PMID 37185768 |
| red wine | 100.0 | 28.9 ⚡ | Corpus paper |
| bread | 22.8 | 6.60 | — |
| cheese | 5.4 | 1.57 | PMID 39360317 |
| rice | 1.0 | 0.29 | Corpus paper |
| daqu | 0.9 | 0.26 | Corpus paper |
| tea | 0.6 | 0.16 | Corpus paper |
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 shareEvery ingredient known to contain ethyl octanoate. 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 octanoate in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.
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