Bitter flavour in dairy products. II. A review of bitter peptides from caseins: their formation, isolation and identification, structure masking and inhibition

Abstract

Bitterness, a flavour defect liable to be present in dairy products, is due to the accumulation of bitter-tasting peptides. These peptides are rich in hydrophobic amino acids and are formed by the action of proteolytic enzymes on casein. Many studies report the isolation, identification, and characterisation of bitter peptides from cheese and casein hydrolysates, and even their synthesis. This has been done in order to determine the structure of peptides, and also to elucidate the roles of different proteolytic enzyme systems in the development of bitterness, the exact nature of which is still hypothetical. Although bitterness has to be accepted as a necessary consequence of proteolysis, it can be mitigated by masking, removal, or prevention.