Production and enrichment of bioactive peptides derived from milk proteins

In this chapter, information is given on the production of bioactive peptides from milk proteins. After defining bioactive peptides, the necessity to release bioactive peptides from the parent protein is discussed. Then, the two main approaches for release, namely enzymatic hydrolysis and microbial fermentation are reviewed. Next, an overview is given of the main unit operations that can be applied for the enrichment and selective isolation of bioactive peptides from the protein hydrolysates, including membrane filtration, chromatography and precipitation. Attention is given mainly to ACE-inhibitory peptides, and to processes that show potential for application in the dairy industry