Cultivating Safety: How Food Safety Champions Translate Regulatory Compliance into Frontline Practice
About this Resource:
Title: Cultivating Safety: How Food Safety Champions Translate Regulatory Compliance into Frontline Practice
Authors: Xiaochen Liu, Phil Bremer, Miranda Mirosa
Type: Journal Article
Journal: Foods
Publication Date: July 2026
Overview:
Food safety systems can define what organisations should do, but they cannot guarantee what people actually do in everyday work. This Perspective explores the space between these two realities. It introduces the Food Safety Champion as a translational actor who helps bridge formal food safety expectations with frontline practice through meaning-making, contextual negotiation, behavioural reinforcement, and continuous feedback. Building on insights from food safety culture, organisational behaviour, institutional theory, and implementation research, the paper proposes the Translation–Enactment–Sustaining (TES) Food Safety Framework as a conceptual model for understanding how food safety becomes embedded in everyday organisational life.
Rather than viewing food safety culture as the outcome of procedures and audits alone, this article argues that culture is continuously created through people, relationships, and repeated practice. By positioning Food Safety Champions as a mechanism that connects institutional governance with human behaviour, the paper offers a new way of thinking about how organisations can move beyond compliance towards more meaningful, resilient, and sustainable food safety practice. It provides practical insights for researchers, regulators, and food businesses seeking to strengthen food safety culture where it matters most—on the frontline.
Food Safety Culture Lab Authors:
Xiaochen Liu
Phil Bremer
Miranda Mirosa
Citation:
Liu, X., Bremer, P., & Mirosa, M. (2026). Cultivating Safety: How Food Safety Champions Translate Regulatory Compliance into Frontline Practice. Foods, 15(14), 2466. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods15142466