Insurance, and what your policy excludes

A consumable product with a physical failure mode, which is an unusual combination.

Two exposures

Illness, from an unpasteurized product, which is the food exposure and the reason the whole five-log regime exists.

Physical injury, from a bottle failing under pressure, which is closer to a product-defect claim than a food one.

Few products carry both, and an insurer will ask about both.

What the exclusions usually are

Unpasteurized or raw products, which some policies exclude outright or rate heavily. This is the clause to check first if you are selling raw juice.

Products requiring refrigeration, or claims arising from a break in the cold chain.

Alcohol, which a food policy will not cover, and which matters if a product tests above 0.5 percent.

Failure to meet a regulatory requirement, which is how a missing warning statement or an absent HACCP plan becomes an uninsured claim.

Manufacture in an unlicensed premises.

What buyers ask for

A certificate at a stated limit, sometimes naming them.

Markets ask; wholesale accounts ask at higher limits and ask about your process as well.

And a retailer's compliance team may ask specifically whether the product is pasteurized, which is a question about their exposure as much as yours.

Getting the cover right

Tell the insurer exactly what you make, whether it is pasteurized, whether it is live, whether it is carbonated and how it is distributed.

An accurate description is what makes the policy respond, and every one of those facts changes the risk.

Tell them again when the range changes: adding a carbonated live product to a still pasteurized range is a materially different risk and is exactly the kind of change that goes unreported.

References