toluene

chemical hydrocarbon

Found in 49 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

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

2D Lewis Structure

Formula: C7H8
Molecular weight: 92.14 g/mol
PubChem CID: 1140 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description: paint
Odor threshold — orthonasal, in clean water: 55.0 ppb – 680 ppb median 650 ppb · 3 published values · see all 13 with sources
Volatility: high
CAS number: 108-88-3
Retention index: 763

Regulatory · United States

FEMA GRAS — Generally Recognized As Safe for flavoring use

? Partial match

FEMA number: 2184
GRAS publication: GRAS 3
FEMA primary name: BUTYLATED HYDROXYTOLUENE

Use-level matrix not extracted for this substance — check the source publication for current ppm guidance.

Source: FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. 2 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.

paint shown above Flavornet Cas, Flavornet Name, Flavordb Odor Column 3 sources agree

—

sweet FlavorDB 2.0

paint, sweet 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

13 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

55.0 ppb – 680 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
55.0 ppb SIDA	water_odor	Leffingwell	25065942
650 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—
680 ppb	water_odor	Leffingwell	—

In a food matrix

0.420 ppb – 794 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
0.420 ppb SIDA	water (food: soy sauce)	Literature corpus	40047343, 25065942, 12692635 +42
3.5 ppb SIDA	water (food: rice)	Literature corpus	40047343, 29877224
11.3 ppb SIDA	water (food: apple)	Literature corpus	25065942, 36409721
13.2 ppb SIDA	water (food: unknown)	Literature corpus	40047343, 25065942, 12692635 +37
91.0 ppb	water (food: milk)	Literature corpus	33963300
110 ppb	water (food: rum)	Literature corpus	39193272
794 ppb	water (food: tea)	Literature corpus	31861730

Retronasal / in-mouth

3.0 ppb

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

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
3.0 ppb SIDA	water_flavor	Leffingwell	25065942

In air

330 ppb – 154882 ppb

Airborne detection — not comparable to a water threshold.

Threshold	Matrix	Source	Paper
330 ppb	air	Nagata 2003	—
154882 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 (73.0 ppb, the engine's canonical value — see the 13 published values). OAV ≥ 1 = perceptible.

Food	Concentration (ppb)	OAV	Source
tea	792.0	10.8 ⚡	Corpus paper
rice	18.3	0.25	—
rum	10.0	0.14	—
apple	8.6	0.12	—
milk	4.7	0.06	—
soybean sauce	0.7	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 toluene. 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 toluene in it. Full concentrations are in the OAV table above.

527 cmpds

363 cmpds

115 cmpds

43 cmpds