Production of bioactive peptides from bovine whey proteins

Peptides derived from whey proteins may be involved in multiple biological functions having potentially beneficial health effects, thereby conferring significant added value to different food products enriched with whey-derived bioactive peptides (BAPs). These BAPs can be released by different processes such as enzymatic hydrolysis, hydrolysis during gastrointestinal digestion, and fermentation. Furthermore, hydrolysis can be performed using in silico approaches as a prescreening process for the release of BAPs from whey proteins. This chapter provides not only an update on the generation of whey-derived BAPs following the approaches mentioned above but also an update on the fractionation and identification strategies used to identify BAP sequences. Moreover, the main bioactivities of whey protein–derived BAPs described to date have been reviewed in this chapter. These include antidiabetic, antihypertensive, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, antiinflammatory, and immunomodulatory effects, along with the potential of whey protein–derived BAPs to promote gut hormone release and their opiate properties.