n-caprylic acid

dairy acid Key food odorant

Found in 1 ingredient across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

Key food odorant (individualist)

Dunkel et al. 2014

Identified in the meta-analysis of 227 food samples as one of 151 individualist odorants — appears in <5% of foods, carries the diagnostic signature of specific ingredients. Characteristic odor: fatty, waxy.

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

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 3000 ppb 2 published values · see all 24 with sources
CAS number: 124-07-2

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

24 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

3000 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
3000 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
3000 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies	—

In a food matrix

4.9 ppb – 3000 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.013 ppb	water (food: beer)	Literature corpus	17499755, 33889833
Flagged: 7649× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.300 ppb	water (food: apple)	Literature corpus	11302210
Flagged: 342× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.380 ppb SIDA	water (food: strawberry)	Literature corpus	32625638, 10552650, 11272845 +46
Flagged: 270× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
4.9 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	29086878, 37188725, 41551788
6.6 ppb SIDA	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	32625638, 11272845, 19753606 +18
9.8 ppb	water (food: milk)	Literature corpus	10552650, 39479676
16.4 ppb	water (food: pork)	Literature corpus	39085314
22.3 ppb	water (food: baijiu)	Literature corpus	35513386
55.0 ppb	water (food: wine)	Literature corpus	25939071, 32657431, 35011467 +1
73.0 ppb SIDA	water (food: garlic)	Literature corpus	32625638, 10552650, 11272845 +46
132 ppb SIDA	water (food: chocolate)	Literature corpus	32625638, 17898464
190 ppb SIDA	water (food: goat milk)	Literature corpus	32625638, 10552650, 11272845 +46
595 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	15826061, 24789719, 30972045
1089 ppb SIDA	water (food: peanut)	Literature corpus	32625638, 10552650, 11272845 +46
1176 ppb	water (food: ginger)	Literature corpus	37936928
1182 ppb	water (food: bread)	Literature corpus	41613919
1622 ppb	water (food: beef)	Literature corpus	37701748, 38974721
1666 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	26973621, 29877224, 38846797 +1
2083 ppb	water (food: olive oil)	Literature corpus	28671107
3000 ppb SIDA	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	32625638, 10552650, 11272845 +46

Retronasal / in-mouth

5300 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
5300 ppb	water_flavor	Leffingwell	—
5300 ppb SIDA	water_retronasal	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 n-caprylic acid. 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 n-caprylic acid in it.

cheese

dairy

295 cmpds

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