Clam peptides: Preparation, flavor properties, health benefits, and safety risks

Bioactive peptides derived from food proteins have attracted attention for their potential roles in functional foods and pharmaceuticals. Clams, renowned for their protein content and essential amino acids critical to human health, represent a promising source for bioactive peptide production. Recent studies have extensively explored the preparation methods, flavor profiles, and health benefits of clam peptides (CPs). However, there is still a lack of a comprehensive review on the current status of CPs development. This review revealed that enzymatic hydrolysis is the predominant methods for CPs production, which is a potential resource for discovering umami peptides. CPs exhibit diverse bioactivities, including antioxidative, antibacterial, ACE inhibitory, immunomodulatory, and anticancer activities. However, the potential presence of heavy metals, pathogenic bacteria, and allergens in raw materials underscores the need for stringent safety evaluations. In the future, production technology, in vivo fate, health efficacy mechanisms and safety will be interesting directions for CPs research.