Peptidomics comparison of plant-based meat alternatives and processed meat after in vitro digestion

Plant-based meat alternatives (PMAs) is a new type of food that meets people's health needs, but the lack of awareness of its nutritional properties limits product development and promotion. Here, we compared the similarities and differences of the nutritional properties of PMAs and meat before and after in vitro simulation of gastrointestinal digestion by chemical composition analysis, peptidomics and bioactivity tests. The molecular weights of Plant-based meat alternatives derived peptides (PDPs) as well as meat-derived peptides (MDPs) in the beef and pork groups were mainly concentrated in the low mass range from 800 Da to 1500 Da. The principal component analysis indicated that the composition of MDPs in the beef and pork groups significantly differed from PDPs but overlapped slightly with the chicken group. Also, there were very few common peptides among them. The proportion of high-biological-scoring peptides (33.3%-40%) in PDPs was more than that in MDPs (4.8%-20.8%). PDPs were predicted to have higher antibacterial activity than others. PDPs and MDPs showed a certain antioxidant capacity and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitory activity (62.2%-92.5%) in vitro. Some peptides weakly inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) while promoting the growth of probiotics. This research provides a theoretical basis for in-depth exploration of the nutritional characteristics of PMAs.