In addition to the nutritional values, milk has a wide range of bioactive compounds which have been found to be increasingly important for physiological and biochemical functions on human metabolism and health. Bioactive components in milk comprise specific proteins, peptides, lipids and carbohydrates. Especially, milk proteins are known to exert a wide range of nutritional, functional, and biological activities. And milk proteins are considered the most important source of bioactive peptides, including antihypertensive, antithrombotic, antimicrobial, antioxidative, immunomodulatory, and opioid peptides. Many ingredients containing specific bioactive peptides derived from milk protein hydrolysates have been launched on the market and are currently under development. In future studies more emphasis should be given to the health-promoting effect in the well-defined human clinical studies for the successful development of function foods based on the milk-derived bioactive components.