Characterization of commercially available peptidases in respect of the production of protein hydrolysates with defined compositions using a three-step methodology

• Characterization of ten commercial peptidase preparations.
• Mass spectroscopic analyses revealed the peptidase composition of the preparations.
• Characterization of the hydrolysate compositions using an automated HPLC system.
• Amino acid release was high for Flavourzyme (28%) and Protease AN (24%).
• No amino acids were released during lupine protein hydrolysis for six preparations.

Enzymatic hydrolysis of food proteins is an effective way to implement a desired functionality into protein containing foods. Since these functionalities are highly dependent on the degree of hydrolysis (DH) of the hydrolysates, the enzymatic hydrolysis process must be carefully controlled. Hydrolysates with both free amino acids and long-chain peptides are usually not desirable which leads to strict requirements for the commercial peptidases used. In the study presented, we characterized ten commercially available peptidase preparations in respect of the production of protein hydrolysates with defined compositions. Therefore, we utilized a three-step methodology to investigate the composition of the commercial peptidase preparations and to characterize the obtained protein hydrolysates applying a HPLC-based system for automated small-scale enzymatic reaction and analysis. With the presented methodology we identified two suitable preparations for the production of hydrolysates with high DH and high amounts of free amino acids, and six suitable preparations for the production of hydrolysates with low DH and negligible release of amino acids.

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