what is a collagen peptide?

Great foundational question. In nature, collagen is a massive, tightly wound triple-helix protein found in animal connective tissue—we call this “native collagen,” and it’s completely indigestible.
To create a collagen peptide, we put native collagen through a process called enzymatic hydrolysis. Specific food-grade enzymes are used to snip those long, rigid protein chains into tiny, extremely short chains of amino acids. These little fragments are the “peptides.” Because they are so small, they are highly water-soluble and bioactive.