Differences in peptide generation following in vitro gastrointestinal digestion of yogurt and milk from cow, sheep and goat

•Peptides from in vitro digestion of cow, goat and sheep products were different.•β-CN and β-Lg were digested faster in yogurt samples.•Yoghurts produced a greater amount of bioactive peptides than milks.•The majority of bioactive peptides had antihypertensive activity. Fermentation of milk is commonly used throughout the world to produce a variety of foods with different health benefits. We hypothesised that due to differences in physicochemical properties and protein sequences among milk from different species and their fermented yogurt samples, their protein digestion and resulting peptide profiles would differ. Cow, goat and sheep milk and yogurt were compared at designated timepoints throughout in vitro gastric and intestinal digestion for differences in peptide profiles and peptide bioactivities. The results showed that most proteins in all milk and yogurt samples were digested within the early phase of gastric digestion. β-Lg and β-CN were digested faster in yogurt than milk, which was most evident for sheep products. Regardless of species, in vitro gastric and intestinal digestion released a higher concentration of specific peptides, particularly anti-hypertensives, from yogurt compared with their milk counterparts.