n-hexyl acetate

fruity ester Key food odorant

Found in 2 ingredients 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.

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

Properties

Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 2.0 ppb – 3.5 ppb median 2.8 ppb · 2 published values · see all 15 with sources
CAS number: 142-92-7
Retention index: 1012

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

15 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

2.0 ppb – 3.5 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
2.0 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
3.5 ppb SIDA	water	Rychlik 1998 · 2 studies	—

In a food matrix

0.350 ppb – 1274 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.020 ppb	water (food: wine)	Literature corpus	32397426, 32657431
Flagged: 1104× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.100 ppb	water (food: milk)	Literature corpus	17499755, 20552523, 24137478 +17
Flagged: 221× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden.
0.350 ppb	water (food: orange)	Literature corpus	37515910
5.0 ppb	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	26973621, 38846797, 40467248
7.5 ppb	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	20552523, 24137478, 25717332 +2
11.2 ppb	water (food: beer)	Literature corpus	17499755, 33889833
33.0 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	32796601, 35956905
93.1 ppb	water (food: apple)	Literature corpus	37021304
115 ppb	water (food: reference standard (water))	Literature corpus	17499755, 20552523, 24137478 +17
349 ppb	water (food: peach)	Literature corpus	37476402
1077 ppb	water (food: lime)	Literature corpus	41048468
1274 ppb	water (food: olive oil)	Literature corpus	28671107

In air

1.8 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
1.8 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—

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-hexyl acetate. 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-hexyl acetate in it.

288 cmpds

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