Bioactive peptides in fermented foods and their application: a critical review

Bioactive peptides are released during the production of fermented dairy, vegetables, fruits, legumes, fish, and meat products. The proteolytic specificity of lactic acid bacteria, Bacillus spp., yeasts, and mold, apart from their ability to synthesize bioactive peptides, plays an important role in the generation of specific bioactive peptides in traditional fermented foods. Controlled fermentation using defined starter strains has been explored for the development of bioactive peptides enriched novel fermented foods with potential functionality. Bioactive peptides enriched foods exert diverse health benefits, such as antioxidant, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, and immunomodulatory effects. Bioactive peptides can be used as alternatives to synthetic compounds due to negligible side effects and high valuation in the nutraceutical and functional food market. However, challenges associated with the identification, quantification, organoleptic properties, and bioavailability of bioactive peptides need to be addressed before exploiting the potential of bioactive peptides in the functional food industry. In the present review, we have discussed the production of bioactive peptides in diverse fermented foods. Structural and sequence specificity of peptides and their effect on the expression of distinct health beneficial effects have been described. The potential of utilizing these bioactive peptides for the development of novel functional fermented foods is discussed. Recent advances in peptide identification, quantification, debittering of peptides, and increasing peptide bioavailability have been explained.