Odour activity value (OAV) is a measure of importance of a specific compound to the

odour An odor (American English) or odour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that are generally found in low concentrations that humans and animals can perceive via their sense ...

of a sample (e.g. food). It is calculated as the

ratio In mathematics, a ratio shows how many times one number contains another. For example, if there are eight oranges and six lemons in a bowl of fruit, then the ratio of oranges to lemons is eight to six (that is, 8:6, which is equivalent to the ...

between the

concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', ''molar concentration'', ''number concentration'', an ...

of individual substance in a sample and the threshold concentration of this substance ( odour threshold value, the minimal concentration that can be detected by human nose).

References

{{Reflist Olfaction Flavors