APPLICATION OF BACTERIOPHAGES IN THE PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING OF NIGERIAN INDIGENOUS FOODS

Foodborne bacterial contamination remains a persistent constraint on the safety, shelf life and export competitiveness of Nigerian indigenous foods such as ogi, kunu-zaki, nono, wara, iru and ugba. These products are largely produced by spontaneous fermentation under uncontrolled hygienic conditions, and multiple studies have recovered Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp., Klebsiella spp. and Bacillus spp. from them. This study reviewed and empirically evaluated the application of bacteriophages, viruses that specifically infect and lyse bacteria, as a green biocontrol technology for improving the microbiological quality of Nigerian indigenous foods. A mixed-methods design combining a structured literature synthesis of thirty peer-reviewed studies with an experimental biocontrol dataset was adopted. Performance percentage analysis was used to answer three research questions, while descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and simple linear regression were used to test three hypotheses. Results showed that phage treatment produced mean reductions of 2.5 to 6.2 log10 CFU across food matrices, that applied phage titre correlated strongly and positively with pathogen reduction (r = 0.94, p < 0.01), and that phage cocktails outperformed single phages. Regression analysis indicated that phage titre alone explained about 88% of the variation in log reduction (R² = 0.88). The study concludes that bacteriophages, applied as wellcharacterised lytic cocktails at appropriate titres, offer a specific, natural and consumer-compatible route to safer Nigerian indigenous foods, and recommends structured local phage banks, encapsulation for delivery, and a national regulatory framework