Aldehydes are organic compounds that occur as natural flavoring components in a variety of foods. They are extensively used as food additives. The concentration of the aldehydes in foods is often quite low but occasionally they occur in very high concentrations.

In the present study, aliphatic aldehydes were used as stimuli because data on olfactory sensitivity (humans, squirrel monkeys and mice) as well as on discrimination performance from other species for the aldehydes used here are available (honeybees, squirrel monkeys and mice).

These aldehydes were used in the study:
Butanal
Pentanal
Hexanal
Heptanal
Octanal