Egg-Derived Proteins as Functional Food Ingredients: Modification Strategies, Bioactive Peptides, Bioavailability, and Techno-Functional Applications

Egg-derived proteins are increasingly investigated as multifunctional ingredients for the development of foods that combine nutritional value, technological performance and potential biological functionality. This structured narrative review critically synthesizes the recent literature on egg white and egg yolk proteins as precursors of techno-functional and bioactive food ingredients. The review focuses on enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation-assisted modification, physical technologies and chemical or biochemical strategies, and links these interventions with molecular rearrangements, peptide release, digestibility, bioavailability, allergenicity and performance in food matrices. Current evidence indicates that controlled modification can improve solubility, foaming, emulsification, gelation, mineral-binding capacity and the release of peptides with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive, antimicrobial and immunomodulatory potential. However, functional improvement is strongly process- and matrix-dependent, while most evidence for the reported biological activities remains preclinical, being derived mainly from in vitro assays and animal studies, and does not establish physiological efficacy in humans. Translation into functional foods remains limited by incomplete peptide standardization, scarce human validation, possible persistence or alteration of allergenicity, sensory defects, clean-label constraints, processing reproducibility and scalability. Overall, egg-derived proteins represent promising platforms for next-generation functional foods, provided that future research integrates molecular characterization with digestion and absorption studies, safety assessment, sensory evaluation, pilot-scale processing and validation in real food systems.