Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Peptides Extracted from Meat By-products: a Review

Abstract

The worldwide consumption of high-protein food has notoriously increased in recent years. Meat industry generates substantial quantities of protein-rich raw material, which are often discarded as low-value by-products. However, several bioactive compounds can be isolated from these products giving an added value to them. In addition to conventional extraction methods, emerging technologies, including high-pressure processing (HPP), ultrasound (US), pulsed electric fields (PEF) can be used for peptide isolation from meat by-products allowing to maintain the functional properties of these compounds. Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities are between the properties associated with peptides, what would enable their introduction in foods as ingredient and preservative. This review is focused to gather accurate information about the entire extraction process, from the source used until the final peptides obtained. In this sequence are included the pretreatment of the by-product, the extraction procedure, the fractionation and purification, as well as the assay used for the determination of their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities.