Chemistry and Biofunctional Significance of Bioactive Peptide Interactions with Food and Gut Components

Food-derived bioactive peptides (BAPs) have gained significant interest as functional agents for developing food products with health benefits. To elucidate the underlying bioactivity mechanisms, current research investigates mostly the structure–activity relationship of native peptides. However, peptide structures are highly susceptible to chemical modifications, which can subsequently influence their physiological behaviors and bioactivities. This paper highlights the peptide structure modifications occurring with major food components during processing and the digestive environment of the gut as well as associated changes in peptide properties and biofunctions. Given the modification propensity of peptides, focus should be shifted toward characterizing the nature, biofunctions, gut activity, bioavailability, and safety of the modified peptides toward achieving pragmatic food applications of BAPs.