Milk proteins-derived bioactive peptides in dairy products: molecular, biological and methodological aspects

Proteins are one of the primary components of the food, both in terms of nutrition and function. They are main source of amino acids, essential for synthesis of proteins, and also source of energy. Additionally, many proteins exhibit specific biological activities, which may have effect on functional or pro-health properties of food products. These proteins and their hydrolysis products, peptides, may influence the properties of food and human organism. The number of commercially available food products containing bioactive peptides is very low, apart from that milk proteins are their rich source. It could be supposed that number of available products with declared activity will rise in near future because of observed strong uptrend on interest in such products. Molecular and biological properties of milk proteins, as precursors of bioactive peptides was characterised in the work. Therefore, the strategy of research and obtaining of such peptides both in laboratory and industrial scale, as well as the range of their commercial application, was presented. Several examples of research efforts presenting high potential to develop new products containing bioactive peptides from milk proteins and predetermined as nutraceuticals was described.