What You Need to Know about Catering Insurance

Catering has always been a popular choice for talented chefs and restaurant ventures, and is even more popular today in the world of COVID-19. Catering businesses have unique insurance requirements due to the mobile nature of the business, which means many catering businesses could find themselves not properly insured and at risk of losing their business. 

Securing the proper insurance for your catering business doesn’t have to cost a fortune. It’s simply a matter of understanding what risks you have in your business and utilizing the expert knowledge and experience of an independent insurance agent.

Liability Insurance for a Catering Business

Catering businesses need liability insurance, but you need the right type to cover all the potential things that could go wrong in your business. Some of the liability coverage that your catering business might need includes:

• General liability: General liability insurance will protect your business from lawsuits if your customers get injured while buying or eating your food, or many other situations where they could point the finger at your business for their injuries. 
• Product liability: Often this coverage is automatically included with your general liability limits, but you’ll want to double-check. Product liability would cover you for lawsuits if any of your customers got sick after eating your food. 
• Food contamination liability: This may or may not be included in your product liability section, but if your food goes bad and customers get sick, you’ll want some type of coverage. Talk with your independent insurance agent to see what all is included in your general liability insurance policy. 
• Liquor liability: If your catering business serves alcohol, you’ll need liquor liability insurance. Liquor liability provides coverage in case there’s a claim related to alcohol that you provided. 
• Commercial auto: Since you’ll be driving to and from different locations as part of your catering business, you’ll need at least your personal auto insurance to reflect “business use” of your car. This lets the insurance company know that you’re using your vehicle as part of your business. You’re also likely to need a separate commercial auto insurance policy to protect your business’s assets if you get into a car accident, and also if you title the vehicle in the business’s name. 

Mobile Catering Liability Insurance

If your catering business includes a mobile trailer, like a food truck or food trailer, then you’ll definitely want to consider buying commercial auto insurance to cover this. 

If you’re driving the vehicle on the road, and it’s not a trailer being pulled, then you’ll probably want to title the vehicle in the business’s name and insure it on a commercial auto insurance policy. This will cover your business if you’re responsible for an accident on the road. 

To cover your trailer’s contents and equipment while it’s on the road and being moved around, you’ll want an inland marine policy. This can be added to your commercial package policy, which would also include your general liability insurance and any business property or business contents coverage.

Inland marine insurance is mainly designed for this purpose: to cover equipment while it’s being moved around to various locations. Without it, if you got into a wreck while driving, you wouldn’t have any coverage for your equipment. 

Liability Insurance for Catering with a Trailer

If you’re pulling a trailer, you still might need a commercial auto insurance policy. Trailers only have automatic liability coverage under the pulling vehicle’s insurance policy if the trailer weighs less than 3,000 lbs. Any weight over that and there is no liability coverage without listing the trailer on a commercial auto insurance policy. 

If you do have automatic liability coverage, you still might want to add it on commercial auto insurance. If you’re pulling a business-use trailer with your personally insured vehicle and get into a wreck, your business won't have any liability coverage unless the trailer is specifically listed on a commercial auto policy. 

Catering Insurance for Events and a Single Day

You can buy liability coverage for specific, single events that you’re catering for. If you already have a general liability policy, you probably won’t need to add anything to be covered for liability. You may just need to update your policy with the location of the event to have the right type of property coverage. 

If you don’t have any insurance and just need catering insurance for one day or a one event, you can buy a specific policy to cover your liability needs. These single event or one day catering insurance policies give you the coverage you need without having to carry insurance for an entire year. You’ll still need to buy the appropriate liability coverage, such as liquor liability insurance, but it will cost less than buying insurance for a year. 

Depending on the size of the event, the location it's in, and if there is any liquor involved, you could expect to pay a few hundred dollars for catering liability insurance for a single event or one day event. 

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Catering Insurance Near Me

The best way to secure the most comprehensive catering insurance at the lowest price is by going through an independent insurance agent. Independent insurance agents from TrustedChoice.com will recommend the most appropriate insurance coverage and will get quotes from multiple companies to find you the lowest price. 

Catering businesses are potentially at risk of not having the right insurance coverage in place, so protect your business by trusting the experts. Catering insurance isn’t really complicated, but as with any business insurance, there can be different moving parts that need to be insured properly, or your business could be at risk. 

TrustedChoice.com independent insurance agents are found all across the country, so you can find the closest one to you through our website.