phenylacetaldehyde
green aldehyde Key food odorantFound in 537 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.
Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.
- Formula
- C8H8O
- Molecular weight
- 120.15 g/mol
- PubChem CID
- 998 — 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.
Properties
- Odor description
- hawthorne, honey, sweet
- Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water
- 4.0 ppb 2 published values · see all 30 with sources
- Volatility
- high
- CAS number
- 122-78-1
- Retention index
- 1046
FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use
- FEMA number
- 2874
- GRAS publication
- GRAS 3
- FEMA primary name
- PHENYLACETALDEHYDE
Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.
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.
Same molecule, unified here — previously counted and displayed as separate compounds.
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
30 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
4.0 ppbThe reference measurement — smelled in water. OAV is computed against this.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 ppb | water_odor | Leffingwell | — |
| 4.0 ppb SIDA | water | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
In a food matrix
0.050 ppb – 91.0 ppbMeasured in a real food, where the matrix shifts detection — not a clean-water value.
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.050 ppb SIDA | water (food: rum) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 0.280 ppb SIDA | water (food: tomato) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 0.440 ppb SIDA | water (food: lime) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 0.467 ppb SIDA | water (food: coffee) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 0.500 ppb SIDA | water (food: pepper) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 1.4 ppb SIDA | water (food: chocolate) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 2.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: sesame) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 2.8 ppb SIDA | water (food: honey) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 2.8 ppb SIDA | water (food: rice) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 4.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: japanese soy sauce) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 4.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: beef vegetable gravy) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 4.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: pork vegetable gravy) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 4.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: wheat porridge / bread crumb) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 5.5 ppb SIDA | water (food: ginger) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 7.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: fish) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 10.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: unknown) | Literature corpus | 33714268 |
| 14.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: cheese) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 16.9 ppb SIDA | water (food: tea) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 22.1 ppb SIDA | water (food: garlic) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 24.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: hungarian-type salami) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 47.8 ppb SIDA | water (food: soy sauce) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 91.0 ppb SIDA | water (food: lamb) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 650 ppb SIDA | water (food: wine) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| Flagged: 162× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 1336 ppb SIDA | water (food: bread) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| Flagged: 334× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
| 1346 ppb SIDA | water (food: beef) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| Flagged: 336× from the median of this group. Excluded from the range above pending re-check against the source publication — shown rather than hidden. | |||
Other matrix
22.0 ppbMeasured in a non-aqueous medium (oil, starch, cellulose).
| Threshold | Matrix | Source | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22.0 ppb SIDA | oil_orthonasal | Rychlik 1998 · 1 studies | — |
| 22.0 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa beans) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
| 22.0 ppb SIDA | oil (sunflower oil) (food: cocoa powder) | Literature corpus | 33714268, 32251584 |
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 shareEvery ingredient known to contain phenylacetaldehyde. 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 phenylacetaldehyde in it.
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