Catering Insurance: Liability, Cost & Quotes From $5

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A  restaurant, coffee shop, or grocery store has its fair share of risks that an owner should be aware of and cover with insurance. Running a catering business is no exception to this rule. In this guide, we’re going to discuss catering insurance.

Catering insurance is a tailored insurance package that helps cover costs if the food you made caused foodborne illnesses. You can also use this to cover liabilities for accidents caused by hired food delivery drivers who don't have their own food delivery insurance. 

Liability Insurance for Catering Business

Catering liability insurance protects your business from claims filed by third parties. This has many forms. However, the most common ones for catering businesses like yours  are:

• General liability insurance

• Professional liability insurance

• Product liability insurance

General Liability Insurance for Catering Businesses 

Your catering business will cause personal injuries or property damage to clients, vendors, and other third parties.  You're responsible for the injuries and property damage third parties sustain. This is particularly true if the accident resulted from the failure to eliminate safety hazards by maintaining and cleaning the premises well and using well-conditioned equipment. 

For this reason, it’s very important for catering businesses to get a general liability insurance policy.  General liability insurance provides $1 million - $2 million coverage for:

Third-Party Property Damage	Third-Party Injuries	Legal Costs
If your catering business damaged the event venue, general liability insurance will reimburse the losses of the property owner	Your employee was distributing soup to the parties’ guests and accidentally spilled the soup on someone. If the injured person decides to file a claim, general liability insurance will pay for medical expenses	Someone who sustained injuries or property damage because of your business might sue. In such a situation, general liability insurance will take care of attorney fees, compensatory payments the court orders, and other legal costs

General liability insurance doesn’t limit itself to protecting your catering business against personal injury claims and property damage claims. It has optional policies that cover other exposures associated with your catering business's interaction with clients, vendors, visitors, and other third parties. These optional policies are:

Advertising Injury Coverage	Products and Completed Operations Coverage	Rented Premises Liability Coverage
Your catering business might damage the reputation of another catering business verbally or in writing. It’s also possible for it to copy another business’s name, logo, slogan, or advertising. For such cases, advertising injury coverage will cover legal expenses on your behalf. Perils included in the language of advertising injury coverage are - slander, libel, copyright infringement, and other related acts	You might have caused personal injuries or property damage after completing the catering service, The job of products and completed operations coverage is to cover attorney fees, compensatory payments, and other legal costs if a past client files a claim	Are you renting a commercial space for your catering business’s operations? Understand that you’re responsible for paying the landlord if a fire damages his commercial space. The job of rented premises liability coverage is to pay on your behalf

How Can You Reduce Personal Injuries and Property Damage to Third Parties?

Prevention is better than cure. Managing risks ensures that your business won’t be responsible if something happens to third parties. Furthermore, it helps keep insurance rates stable. Here are some risk management techniques to follow:

• Proactive cleaning - caterers should always clean after dirt, as this greatly eliminates the risk of slip and fall accidents

• Efficient floor plan arrangement - messy floor plan arrangement contributes a lot to slip and falls. And so, it’s important to place tables, chairs, and other related objects in a manner that allows the crowd to move easily and safely

Product Liability Insurance

Product liability insurance will cover your legal and financial liability upon delivering defective products or goods to clients. This will cover attorney fees, compensatory payments, and other legal costs if your business used poorly cleaned utensils and served poorly prepared food to guests.  Product liability insurance will also help if your business causes food poisoning. By the way, note that product liability insurance is available as an add-on to general liability insurance. 

Catering Professional Liability Insurance

Your catering business might commit acts constituting errors and omissions. And this will result in economic or financial losses to the client. If a client files a claim, professional liability insurance will cover attorney fees, compensatory payments the judge wants you to pay, and other legal costs.  The language of professional liability insurance includes the following perils:

• Negligence

• Violation of good faith

• Misrepresentation

• Violation of fair dealing

• Violation of confidential information

Commercial Property Insurance for Catering Business 

Your catering business’s office and warehouse need insurance too. After all, you spent a considerable amount of money on their construction. Also, inside them are numerous valuable items that cost thousands if not millions of dollars. And so, you should consider getting commercial property insurance that primarily covers:

Building Destruction	Building Damage
Fire and extreme weather will utterly destroy your catering business’s office and warehouse. Commercial property insurance will reimburse your losses equal to the value of the totaled buildings	Fire, extreme weather, vandalism, and other covered perils will damage your catering business’s office or warehouse. Commercial property insurance also provides reimbursements if this happens

Commercial property insurance has inclusions as additional protection for your business assets. These inclusions are:

• Business equipment and tools coverage

• Stocks and contents coverage

Inside your catering business’s warehouse or office are important equipment such as food storage boxes, dinnerwares, risers, cake stands, cupcake towers, vases, centerpieces, insulated food pan carriers, induction cookers, portable grills, holding cabinets, and more. These might get damaged or lost due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils.  There’s no need to worry though because business equipment and tools coverage will reimburse your losses. 

Stocks and contents coverage is a coverage for other valuables not considered as equipment or tools. Examples are food supplies, office furniture, important documents, lighting, CCTV cameras, and more. If a fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils cause the loss or damage of such items, stocks and contents coverage will reimburse your losses. 

How Much Money Can You Get from Commercial Property Insurance?

Commercial property insurance will provide reimbursements based on the actual cash value or replacement cost value of the scheduled property. The table below outlines the difference:

Replacement Cost	Actual Cash Value
In a replacement cost reimbursement, commercial property insurance will give money not taking depreciation of the scheduled property into account. For example, if your catering business’s office is worth $500,000, you’ll also receive the same amount of insurance money	In an actual cash value reimbursement,  the money you’ll receive from commercial property insurance will be equal to the depreciated value of the scheduled property. For example,  if your catering business’s $2 million warehouse burned and it depreciated 3% over time. You’ll only receive $600,000 and not the full value

Workers’ Compensation Insurance for Catering Businesses

Your employees will experience cuts and burns. They will also suffer from repetitive motion injuries because of lifting materials and objects. Catering businesses like yours are mandated by law to get workers' compensation insurance. 

Workers' compensation insurance is state-mandated insurance. It provides coverage for the following when an employee experiences a work-related injury or sickness. The coverage of workers' compensation insurance includes:

	Medical treatment/procedure - Workers compensation insurance will take care of the expenses for medical procedure/treatment the employee needs including surgery
	Hospitalization -  In case your employee needs to stay at the hospital, workers' compensation insurance will shoulder the bills
	Rehabilitation - Some injuries or sicknesses might permanently impair an employee without intervention. Workers' compensation insurance also pays for rehabilitation to treat injuries or sicknesses that affect the employee’s quality of life
	Medication - An employee needs medicines to heal fast. In connection, workers' compensation insurance pays for the medicines the doctor requests the employee to buy
	Lost income compensation - Some injuries or illnesses will stop an employee from working. Because of this, workers' compensation insurance provides compensation for lost income equal to two-thirds or 67% of the employee’s average weekly wage.  Lost income compensation comes as a weekly allowance
	Death benefits - In case the employee dies, workers' compensation insurance provides death benefits. Death benefits include but are not limited to funeral payments and cash aid to the dependents

Liability Insurance for Catering Van

Your catering business depends on its vehicle to transport equipment and goods to the client’s venue. In connection, vehicle use opens the possibility of vehicular accidents happening. Injuries resulting from road crashes are very costly to deal with. If held liable for the accident, catering businesses can face million-dollar lawsuits. 

Insurance companies underwrite liability insurance for catering van as auto liability coverage included in commercial auto insurance together with physical damage coverage, and medical payments/personal injury protection coverage.  Note that this policy is usually included in catering truck insurance. 

Auto Liability Coverage	Physical Damage Coverage	Medical Payments/Personal Injury Protection
Your catering business’s vehicle will cause an accident and injure third parties or damage properties. The job of this insurance for catering van is to get injured third parties treated and hospitalized. It will also reimburse the owners of damaged property	Physical damage coverage will take care of the damage your catering business’s vehicle sustains. This mobile catering van insurance coverage has two forms: collision and comprehensive	When a vehicular accident happens, medical payments/personal injury protection will take care of your own medical bills as well as the passengers and drivers. But unlike PIP, medical payments also provides coverage for lost income

Collision vs Comprehensive Physical Damage Coverage

Collision Physical Damage Coverage - This will take care of parts repair or replacement if your catering business’s commercial vehicle incurred damage after colliding with an object or another vehicle on the road. This won’t help if you caused an accident because of:

• Driving under influence
• Using the vehicle to run away from authorities
• Using the vehicle with broken/weak headlights, broken horn, and other safety features the law mandates any car in good running condition should have
• Driving without a license

Comprehensive Damage Coverage - Comprehensive physical damage coverage will cover parts repair or replacement if fire, lightning, storm, hail, other acts of nature, vandalism, and other covered perils damaged your catering business’s commercial vehicle.

By the way, collision and comprehensive physical damage coverage cover specific kinds of damage to the engine. But note one thing though that both don’t cover aftermarket/custom parts

Mobile Catering Public Liability Insurance

A mobile catering public liability insurance will take care of the costs associated with lawsuits the vendors, clients,  visitors, and other members of the public raise against your mobile catering business.  Just like general liability insurance, this also covers personal injury claims and property damage claims. 

Catering Insurance for One Day

Catering insurance one day coverage provides coverage for a limited number of days. This is useful for caterers who want to get an insurance policy to get permission to operate at an event. Nonetheless, catering insurance for a day isn’t a very trusty armor against risks. This is because it only provides protection from third-party and customer claims. 

Aside from general liability coverage, 1 day catering insurance can be added with inland marine insurance and equipment breakdown insurance.

Your one day event catering insurance will provide a general liability coverage having a $500,000 to $1 million limit. Sub-limits apply if the general liability insurance comes with products/completed operations coverage and advertising injury coverage. 

Also, it’s important to understand that even though it only offers general liability coverage, catering insurance for a day is expensive. Typically,  the cost of this insurance starts at $99 and will need to be paid daily so long as it's in effect. 

So what are some excellent companies that provide one day catering insurance? Recommended ones are Thimble and FLIP. 

Single Event Catering Insurance

This is insurance for catering company that provides its service to only one specific event. For example, if the catering company only takes charge of weddings, its single event catering insurance will only apply to the accidents and other problems associated with that wedding. 

Event catering insurance is a practical option.  Through this policy, the policyholder can use insurance with terms that absolutely apply to the risks of the specific event their catering business is currently servicing.

Home Catering Insurance

Home catering insurance provides coverage to home caterers. This policy is practically useful for those who are new to providing catering services and don't have employees yet. The terms of this policy include general liability insurance, professional liability insurance, commercial auto insurance, and product liability insurance. 

Catering Insurance Cost

This section provides catering insurance cost. On average, caterers pay $47 a month or $564 a year for a $1 million general liability coverage. In addition, here’s a table showing the pricing of the best carriers for catering businesses:

In the table below, you can take a look at the different cost of insurance for catering business based on the type and business size.

Cost of Insurance for Party Catering Business

Cost of Insurance for Event Catering Business

Cost of Insurance for Food Catering Business

Cost of Insurance for Corporate Catering Business

Catering Van Insurance Cost

Catering van insurance cost is $41 per month or $492 per year for a $1 million auto liability coverage. 

Compare Catering Insurance Quote

Catering insurance quote comparison online is the best way for catering businesses to find the fairest and most useful policies. You can do so on this website by clicking the “Get Quotes” button. Upon filling up the form, you’ll get the quotes from the best catering insurance companies.