Chapter 11 - Health Effects of Cheese Components with a Focus on Bioactive Peptides

Abstract

Cheese is a rich source of essential nutrients, in particular, proteins, fat, vitamins, and minerals. In addition to their nutritional role, cheese components are also able to exert important health benefits, with calcium, fatty acids, and bioactive peptides being the main players. This chapter presents an updated revision on the health effects of cheese components focusing on the most studied bioactive peptides activities, which are liberated during cheese ripening, where casein is hydrolyzed by proteases and peptidases from milk, rennet, starter culture, and secondary microbial flora. Some of the generated peptides can survive gastrointestinal digestion or serve as precursors from the final peptide form, which are responsible for a wide array of antihypertensive, antioxidant, antimicrobial, or opioid biological activities.