Ultrafiltration membranes can be advantageously used to improve the bioactivity of a saithe protein hydrolysate containing peptides having a size lower than 7 kDa, by fractionating or concentrating some specific molecular weight peptide classes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the behaviour of a 4 kDa membrane in modified polyethersulfone in conditions close to industrial exploitation. This work consists in evaluating the effect of the initial peptide content(30,90 and 150 mg/mL), the transmembrane pressure (10 and 30 bar), in total recycling modes and the volume reduction factor (until 5) on membrane performances, in terms of permeation flux and selectivity. The peptide content and mass repartition profiles are measured by size exclusion chromatography. It is observed that the pressure and the peptide content, which can act as complementary or antagonist factors, can be adjusted to modify the transmission of peptides and consequently the apparent molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of the membrane. These results have been directly applied to study the refining of a peptidic fraction lower than I kDa having a potential bioactivity (i.e. antioxidant and hypotensive). The change in refining performances with the volume reduction factor (VRF) are discussed, including the recovery yield and the purity of the interesting fraction in permeate and the energy requirements. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.