Putting microbes to work: dairy fermentation, cell factories and bioactive peptides. Part I: overview

A variety of milk-derived biologically active peptides have been shown to exert both functional and physiological roles in vitro and in vivo, and because of this are of particular interest for food science and nutrition applications. Biological activities associated with such peptides include immunomodulatory, antibacterial, anti-hypertensive and opioid-like properties. Milk proteins are recognized as a primary source of bioactive peptides, which can be encrypted within the amino acid sequence of dairy proteins, requiring proteolysis for release and activation. Fermentation of milk proteins using the proteolytic systems of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is an attractive approach for generation of functional foods enriched in bioactive peptides given the low cost and positive nutritional image associated with fermented milk drinks and yoghurt. In this review, we discuss the exploitation of such fermentation towards the development of functional foods conferring specific health benefits to the consumer beyond basic nutrition. In particular, in Part I, we focus on the release of encrypted bioactive peptides from a range of food protein sources, as well as the use of LAB as cell factories for the de novo generation of bioactivities.