Peptidomics as a tool for characterizing bioactive milk peptides

•Peptidomic strategies include creating novel bioactive peptides and peptide mapping.•Peptidomics generates peptide databases for industrial/traditional dairy products.•MS-based strategies are irreplaceable techniques for dairy product analyses.

Food peptidomics is a sub-field of proteomics that focuses on the composition, interactions, and properties of bioactive peptides present in different food matrices. The milk peptidome is considered a valuable source of a number of biologically active peptides. Increasing use of peptidomic techniques-including the application of high-resolution techniques, such as mass spectrometry-has led to enhancements of our knowledge regarding the health benefits of dairy products, as well as improved monitoring for food control and food safety. Chromatographic techniques, both at the analytical and preparative scale, are used also in the identification of novel peptides, including those synthesized and those obtained through fermentation processes. The present review focuses on peptidomic approaches to the investigation of bioactive milk peptides, including bioinformatics, chemometric tools, and proteomic/peptidomic methods.