Research Progress on Beef Proteolysis and Functional Properties of Active Peptides

Beef is a high-quality food source, providing abundant nutrients, and having a succulent texture and flavorful taste. The amino acids composition and proportion in beef are close to human requirement. After single-enzyme hydrolysis, multi-enzyme combination hydrolysis or multi-enzyme step-by-step hydrolysis, the beef proteins generate a variety of peptides which can be separated from the hydrolysate. Some of them have been proven to exhibit diverse biological functions, such as seasoning, anti-hypertension, anti-oxidation, anti-microbe, and neuroprotection. At present, bioactive peptide products on the market are mainly derived from plants, milk and aquatic products. Meat-derived peptides are rarely applied in practice, while most of them are under experimental stage. More investigations are needed to explore their mechanism of action, bioavailability and methods of separation and purification before application to actual production.This review focuses on the hydrolytic methods and products of beef proteins, and address protein-derived peptides which have latent bio-potencies, and herein further propose promising prospect and trend of efficient utilization of these active peptides. It provides theoretical basis and reference for the application of beef proteolysis technology in the area of developing new functional food and food-based materials.