Catering Insurance: Think Location, Location, Location!
Location is one of the first decisions any caterer must face. Specifically, where will the prep work be done? Where will the cooking take place? Where will the preparations and cooking be finished if they are not completed at the original location? Where will the food be served?
The answers to each of those questions will dictate further considerations. For example, how will finished food, condiments, and garnishments prepared at one location be kept properly hot or cold while being transported to the serving location, and while being served? And what health regulations and requirements must be met at each step?
Additionally, each location used in the catering process has its own specific needs for equipment, procedures, and staffing. Each also creates risks of loss if those procedures, equipment, or staff fail to meet required standards for health, food safety and successful contract fulfillment.
Clearly, catering businesses have unique needs for protection that go beyond those of other businesses. Here are a few examples of those unique risks:
- Transportation. Special equipment and proper vehicles are required to protect your food while en route to widely varying locations—destination weddings, backyard receptions, beachside cookouts. Depending upon the type of vehicle and planned usage, the business auto insurance requirements can vary. And coverage for the food itself and equipment carried in the vehicle, the cargo, typically requires a separate policy from that covering the vehicle itself.
- Food safety. Your catering business needs contamination and spoilage insurance. The specific risks of contamination or spoilage can vary greatly between a caterer who largely prepares and serves food onsite, as opposed to one who prepares the majority or all food in a commercial kitchen, then transports and serves at off-site client.
- Liability. While any business needs liability protection, the nature of catering can create additional exposures. These would include protection against liability arising at the prep and cooking location, created en route by your method of transportation, and arising from the characteristics of the final serving location. Serving alcoholic beverages creates an additional set of risks.
- Loss of business income. This is another risk faced by any business, but you need to be sure your coverage properly addresses the unique cash flow of your catering business. For example, consider the effects of event cancellations due to weather, a key supplier’s failure to deliver, losses due to a traffic accident or fire loss at the supplier location: Under what circumstances, if any, may your coverage apply to your financial loss?
While that may seem like a weighty list, the great news is that Roundtable Insurance is ready to help when it comes to risks of loss for your catering business. Our agents are trained and experienced to help you uncover, estimate, analyze, and minimize or eliminate your exposures. Schedule a complete review of your catering protection needs today, so you can focus completely on building your successful business tomorrow.
