Abstract

Seafood proteins are an important source of hydrolysates and peptides with bioactive properties that could be attractive for health and industry related activities. They are usually obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis, but this process is costly and time-consuming. Therefore, emerging technologies could be used to improve process efficiency, yield, and costs. Among emerging technologies, ultrasound (US), high pressure (HHP), microwave (MW), and pulsed electric fields (PEF) have been employed to improve protein hydrolysis, leading to the production of hydrolysates and peptides with good bioactive and functional properties. This chapter offers an overview of current research employing these technologies to obtain peptides and hydrolysates from seafood proteins. It includes discussions of the governing equations for each of these processes as applied to food processing and the various approaches used to integrate these technologies into the hydrolysis process. These integrations occur as pretreatment steps before hydrolysis, during the hydrolysis, or as post-processing of the hydrolysate. It is noteworthy that these technologies can be utilized individually or in combination to further optimize the hydrolysis process. The impact of these technologies on the peptide and hydrolysates bioactive properties depends on several factors, including the nature and conformational stability of the protein being hydrolyzed, the specific protease employed, the processing parameters, and the duration of treatment. The interaction of these variables significantly affects the final product’s bioactive and functional characteristics. Finally, perspectives and possible future developments of the hydrolysis process are discussed are discussed. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.