ethylbenzene

woody hydrocarbon

Found in 5 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C8H10
Molecular weight: 106.16 g/mol
PubChem CID: 7500 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor threshold — in a food matrix: 0.230 ppb – 91.0 ppb median 6.0 ppb · 5 published values · see all 9 with sources
Volatility: high
CAS number: 100-41-4
Retention index: 863

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

9 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

0.230 ppb – 91.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.230 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	17944532
1.3 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	31861730, 33347483
6.0 ppb	water (food: fish)	Literature corpus	24594176, 36144849, 37003052
8.6 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	18941497, 24053239, 25355625 +11
91.0 ppb	water (food: lamb)	Literature corpus	22789457

In air

170 ppb – 18197 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
170 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—
1200 ppb	air (food: peach)	PMC open access	—
1200 ppb	air	PMC open access	—
18197 ppb	air (C1_cometto_muniz_cain)	Cometto-Muñiz (PMC)	—

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 (7.3149999999999995 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 9 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
lamb	918.0	126 ⚡	Corpus paper
fish	6.0	0.82	Corpus paper
tea	1.8	0.25	Corpus paper
lime	0.3	0.05	—

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 ethylbenzene. 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 ethylbenzene in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

46 cmpds

87 cmpds

320 cmpds

364 cmpds