Fractionation of Fish Protein Hydrolysates

Each year the processing industry of marine species generates large amounts of solid by-products such as filleting wastes, heads, etc. which are usually converted to fish meal and oil for feed. However, these by-products often contain high concentrations of proteins that can be transformed into peptides through enzymatic hydrolysis. Fish protein hydrolysates (FPH) possess good nutritional properties and biological activities such as antioxidative, anticarcinogenic, immunological activities, etc. (Chalamaiah et al. 2012). They can thus represent marketable and value-added products to be used as food and feed. Although biological properties of peptides are related to various characteristics, molecular weight (MW), amino acid sequence, hydrophobicity, charge, and acidobasic character, the MW seems to be one of the most important ones. In particular peptides with MW between 1 and 4 kDa have been identified as the most bioactive ones (Hsu 2010). The pressure-driven membrane processes thus...