Food manufacturing insurance for food & beverage businesses

A high-quality manufacturers insurance should help you recover if a serious incident damages or destroys your premises or machinery. It shouldn't just cover the cost of repair or reinstatement but also help replace lost income. Understanding food manufacturers insurance cost is essential for budgeting. You should also ensure that you have adequate property insurance to cover your property, stock, and equipment.

Employers’ liability insurance is also critical. It covers issues arising from employing people, supplying customers and the eventual use of your products. Depending on your business and supply chain, you may also need other types of insurance. This can include stock insurance, goods in transit, book debts, and more.

Putting that tailored cover in place can be complex and time-consuming. For example, it's often harder to find cover if you're a manufacturer of safety-critical related clothing and equipment.

All of this makes it essential to get help from an expert. After all, true peace of mind comes from knowing you have the right manufacturers' insurance cover in place. There's no point getting generic, “off the shelf” cover. Manufacturers insurance is never a 'one size fits all' solution. By collaborating with an expert in risk management, you can minimise your risk exposures. This includes the risk of worker injuries, cyberattacks, and the impact of severe weather. Getting adequate business interruption cover is vitally important.

Product safety alerts, reports and recalls for unsafe products and resources can be found on the Government’s website.

Equipment breakdown insurance is sometimes called machinery breakdown insurance, mechanical breakdown insurance or accidental failure cover. This type of insurance covers

• Costs to replace or repair damaged equipment
• Loss of income resulting from equipment failure
• Spoiled stock
• Costs incurred as a result of any rebuild or restoration.

Equipment breakdown insurance protects your critical equipment. This can mean mechanical or electrical machinery to computers or communication systems. This cover will assist with unexpected costs caused by an equipment failure.

If you’re a manufacturer and hold a general liability (GL) policy, you may have some gaps in your cover that you didn’t realise.

You’ll likely be covered for bodily injury and property damage resulting from your products, services, or operations. But there are some critical exposures your GL policy might not cover, such as products liability.

You may think that general liability insurance would also extend to cover product liability claims. But it isn’t always the case. Due to their complex nature, product liability claims and necessary recalls are highly specific. This goes especially for food and drink. Therefore they tend to be more expensive than a general liability insurance policy will allow. They often exceed the limit of a traditional general liability policy.

Learn more about the potential gaps in your insurance cover.