Food contamination insurance coverage

When it comes to food contamination claims, there are four ways food contamination can be classified:

• Physical contamination is when unplanned foreign objects, such as glass, metal, or plastic, end up in food.
• Chemical contamination happens when cleaning agents, pesticides, and other harmful chemicals get into food.
• Biological contamination occurs when dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli, or Listeria get in food due to improper storage, handling, or preparation.
• Allergenic contamination happens when food is exposed to an ingredient that can cause an allergic reaction, such as peanuts, eggs, or soy.

From production to plating, there are many opportunities for an ingredient or food item to get contaminated before it’s digested.

• Production: Most of the meat, poultry, and produce we eat comes from commercial farms and ranches. Other items, including fish and game, are caught or harvested in the wild. Contamination can happen if fecal matter from a sick animal touches the meat, or if crops are irrigated with water containing hazardous waste.
• Processing: This is when beef becomes burgers, nuts are whipped into peanut butter, and milk is pasteurized and made into cheese. These foods can become contaminated if they’re exposed to germs from animal intestines or work surfaces, or if a processing plant uses contaminated water.
• Distribution: Getting food safely from the plant to your business requires proper storage and handling. If frozen or refrigerated items are left on a loading dock for too long, or if produce is packed into a truck that wasn’t properly cleaned after hauling raw meat, all of those products could be contaminated.
• Preparation: Safely selling and serving food items at your business requires careful handling, storing, and prepping. If a sick employee doesn’t wash their hands before stocking your bakery shelves, or someone chops vegetables with a knife that was just used to cut raw meat, the food you’re serving could be contaminated.

Product liability lawsuits, which happen when a customer is harmed by a contaminated good or defective product, can be catastrophic to a small business. That's where product liability insurance comes in, helping your company pay for the significant legal costs associated with a food contamination claim.

These costs include:

• Attorney’s fees, if a customer sues your manufacturing plant for mislabeling a box of crackers that contained an ingredient to which they were severely allergic.
• Medical bills, if someone gets severe food poisoning from the chicken salad they ate in your deli.
• Settlements or judgments, if a customer takes you to court for the order of produce you delivered to them in rodent-infested trucks.

General liability insurance also covers:

• Third-party bodily injuries, such as a customer cutting their mouth on a piece of plastic in their food.
• Third-party property damage occurs if your business accidentally damages or destroys another person’s property.
• Personal injuries and advertising injuries, if someone accuses you of slander, libel, false advertising, invasion of privacy, or copyright infringement.

Although general liability insurance isn’t legally mandated, if you sign a commercial lease for your restaurant or cafe, your landlord might require that you buy a general liability policy.

Whether you’re a farmer, a food manufacturer, or a private chef, working in the foodservice industry means you handle food daily, putting you at a much greater risk of getting hit with a food contamination lawsuit.

General liability insurance protects you from lawsuits that can cost your small business a lot of time and money, and harm your reputation. Here are some examples of how different foodservice businesses might get hit with a food contamination claim:

• A restaurant employee doesn’t properly wash their hands or wear gloves when chopping vegetables, causing customers to get food poisoning from their salads.
• A customer says they cut their lip on a shard of glass that was in the taco they bought from your food truck.
• Your catering company served contaminated taco meat at a large event, causing an outbreak of foodborne illness.
• A batch of cookies from your bakery was exposed to nuts during prep, and you didn’t disclose that on your menu, causing a customer to have a severe allergic reaction.
• A customer claims that the fresh produce they bought from your market was covered in pesticide residue, which caused their family to contract food poisoning.
• A class-action lawsuit claims your manufacturing plant made and sold peanut butter that caused a massive Salmonella outbreak.

• Train your employees on proper hygiene, including how to correctly wash their hands before, during, and after handling food, using the restroom, or taking out the garbage.
• Make sure prep surfaces, utensils, equipment, and dishes are properly washed and sanitized after each use.

• Keep raw meat, seafood, and eggs away from ready-to-eat foods.
• Use different prep equipment for raw meat and produce.
• Educate employees about proper food safety methods for keeping raw meat and produce in the same refrigerator.

• Use a food thermometer to make sure you’re cooking meat, poultry, and fish to safe internal temperatures.
• Make sure your refrigerator stays at or below 40°F and your freezer is always at 0°F or below.
• Promptly put perishable items in the refrigerator and practice proper thawing methods for frozen ingredients.

Keep in mind, even when you take every precaution, your foodservice business is still vulnerable to lawsuits. Having a general liability policy plays a crucial role in your risk management strategy, protecting you from significant time, costs, and damage recovery measures associated with a lawsuit.