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Nutraceuticals, a term combining the words “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical”, is a food or food product that provides medical or health benefits including the prevention and treatment of diseases. A functional food essentially provides a health benefit beyond the basic nutrition, whereas nutraceutical is used to describe an isolated or concentrated molecular extract of bioactive compounds. Milk is a unique food providing a variety of essential nutrients necessary to properly fuel the body. Inactive food proteins can release encrypted bioactive peptides in vivo or in vitro by digestive enzymatic hydrolysis. Bioseparation protocols offer unique possibilities for a number of application areas, eg, hydrolyzate-based nutraceutical ingredients for functional foods, dietary supplements and medical foods.

Many ingredients are included in the wide range of nutraceuticals, such as essential amino acids, conjugated fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and polyphenols. They have already been patented and incorporated in functional foods and nutritional beverages. Such components are believed to improve overall health and well-being, reducing the risk of specific diseases or minimizing the effects of other health concerns. However, milk is devoid of flavonoids, the most common group of vegetable polyphenolic compounds, which act as antioxidants and free radical scavengers. In contrast, the ingestion of soy and green tea extract may reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer and may protect against various other types of cancer [1-2]. An interesting patented invention has made available an extended-release form of polyphenols and riboflavin (vitamin B2) coated …