The key odorant provides a vital indicator for the odor detection, evaluation and control. This paper reviews the key odorant identification methods around the world, including their weakness, and gives a proposal. It is shown that the Odor Activity Value(OAV), the common method, suffers a large deviation, because its application is limited by the two dimensions of the substance concentration and the olfactory threshold. In addition, the odor activity value method is based on the fact that there is no interaction between various substances, without considering the synergy or the antagonism between the substances. The gas chromatography olfactometry (GC-O) is a more advanced technology, which can realize the simultaneous analysis of the chemical concentration and the sensory evaluation. However, the sample analysis for this method takes a long time and requires the olfactory discriminator at a high level, so a rapid screening is not possible. In conclusion, there are several aspects to be considered in the future:establishing a systematic method to enhance the ability to identify the odorant; improving the odor threshold database to complete the odor thresholds and inconsistent values; studying the odor mechanism and the interaction between odorous substances to provide a theoretical research basis; developing multiple methods to advance the detectability.

odor pollution  /  odour substances  /  odor activity value