Insurance, and what your policy excludes

A product applied to skin by strangers, made in a home, sold at markets. Insurance is not optional here, and the exclusions are the part to read.

What it is for

Product liability responds to a claim that your product caused harm.

In this craft the realistic claims are a skin reaction to a fragrance or an essential oil, and a lye-heavy bar that burned somebody.

General liability, separately, covers somebody tripping over your market table, which market organizers generally require.

The exclusion that matters

Many policies exclude products making drug claims, or require the product to be a cosmetic or exempt soap rather than an unapproved drug.

Which connects this page directly to the determination: a bar sold as antibacterial may be uninsured precisely when a claim arrives.

Read the definitions section rather than the summary, and tell the insurer what you actually sell and how you describe it.

Other common exclusions: products sold outside the territory, ingredients on a named list, and anything made after you changed the formula without telling them.

Where cover is required

Market organizers, frequently, with a certificate naming them.

Wholesale buyers, commonly, at a stated limit.

Craft fairs and venues.

Which means the cover is a sales prerequisite as often as a risk decision, and getting it early avoids losing an account while you arrange it.

What a policy asks you

Revenue, which sets the premium.

What you make and what you claim.

Whether you keep batch records, which is the question that turns record-keeping from housekeeping into evidence.

And who else makes anything for you, since a copacker changes the answer.

References