Bioactive peptides as natural antioxidants in food products – A review

Diseases related to oxidative stress and food quality decay are of major concern worldwide as they can lead to economic losses in both public health and food production. The antioxidant peptides, extracted from food proteins, can be explored as natural new drug and food ingredient. Antioxidant peptides are extracted from non-antioxidant precursor proteins from different origin by the activity of either proteolytic microorganisms or isolated enzymes. In the present review, the main sources of bioactive peptides will be discussed. Moreover, the current strategies to obtain these compounds as well as their health benefits and in vivo biological effects will be evaluated. Considerations for further research and development of strategies to increase the knowledge about this underexplored activity of peptides will be also considered. Bioactive peptides' content and profile differ according to the matrix studied and the method used. The utilization of fermentation processes and enzymes has been established to obtain antioxidant bioactive peptides from proteins, being isolated enzymes the most commonly used method, due to their superior control over releasing and obtaining targeted peptides. Antioxidant peptides have the ability to reduce the formation of oxidative products along with the induction of antioxidant enzymes in vivo. However, at this stage of development more in vivo studies are needed in order to evaluate the specific effects on the health of selected antioxidant peptides. In food technology, successful application in meat products strengthens the role of selected peptides as antioxidant additives, although there is a need to observe the effects of the isolated bioactive peptides in other food matrices along with studies to scale-up its production.