ABSTRACT
Bioactive peptides are currently available as foods or medicines depending on their source, method of preparation, as well as presentation. A wide range of intermediate classi cations may also be relevant, including terms such as functional food (FF), nutraceutical food, or medical food. The diversity of bioactive peptides potentially available for nutrition and health applications is reviewed in this chapter. International legislation and its applicability on the different categories of medical foods and bioactive peptides are explored in the rest of Section 2.1. Major classes of bioactive peptides occurring within the body or produced for industrial applications are described in Section 2.2. Some current applications supported by clinical trial evidence are reviewed in Section 2.3. In Section 2.4, we consider current limitations of clinical data for bioactive peptides and recommendations for future studies. On the basis of current evidence, legislation is actively being developed to guide future developments of bioactive peptides.
