gamma-decalactone

fruity lactone Key food odorant

Found in 64 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C10H18O2
Molecular weight: 170.25 g/mol
PubChem CID: 12813 — full record on PubChem

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 description: peach, creamy, coconut, sweet, fruity
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 11.0 ppb – 21.0 ppb median 16.0 ppb · 2 published values · see all 6 with sources
Volatility: medium
CAS number: 706-14-9

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match

FEMA number: 4446
GRAS publication: GRAS 24
FEMA primary name: gamma-Octadecalactone

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	5	10
cheese	5	10
fats/oils	5	10
milk products	5	10
snack foods	5	10

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. 10 related FEMA records for this name — verify the exact substance for regulatory use.

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.

peach, sweet, creamy Flavornet Cas, Flavornet Name, Flavordb Odor Column 3 sources agree

—

buttery, caramel, coconut, fat, fatty, fresh, fruity, oily, peach, strong, sweet, waxy FlavorDB 2.0

fat, oily, fruity FlavorDB 2.0

coconut-like FlavorDB 2.0

coconut and creamy FlavorDB 2.0

flowery or coconut FlavorDB 2.0

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.

Orthonasal, in clean water

11.0 ppb – 21.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
11.0 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
21.0 ppb	water/ethanol 6:4 (food: american bourbon whisky)	Literature corpus	—

In a food matrix

1.1 ppb – 35.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.1 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	—
23.0 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	—
35.0 ppb	water (food: chocolate)	Literature corpus	—

Retronasal / in-mouth

88.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
88.0 ppb	water_flavor	Leffingwell	—

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 (17.0 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 6 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
mi-peach flavor sports drink	1458.8	85.8 ⚡	Corpus paper
baijiu	0.3	0.02	—
chocolate	0.2	0.01	—

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 gamma-decalactone. 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 gamma-decalactone in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

177 cmpds

8 cmpds

22 cmpds

24 cmpds