Food Industry Insurance
Running a food business today means operating under a compliance burden that grows with every regulatory update, every supply chain partner added, and every new market entered. The Food Safety Modernization Act reshaped what the FDA expects from manufacturers, importers, and distributors. The Food Traceability Rule that took effect in 2026 added documentation requirements that…
The call comes in on a Thursday afternoon. A shipment of imported olive oil arrived at the distribution center with clear signs of temperature deviation. The product is unsaleable. The importer files a cargo claim and waits. A week later, the claim is partially denied: the policy has a temperature excursion exclusion for delays caused…
It is 6 a.m. on a Tuesday. Your logistics coordinator logs in to check the status of three inbound reefer shipments scheduled to clear customs by noon. The screen loads, then freezes. The platform is locked. The carrier contact database is inaccessible. The temperature monitoring dashboard that should be showing live readings from your containers…
Vendor Insurance Requirements for Food Businesses: COIs, Additional Insured, and Contract Must-Haves
Running a food business means trusting a lot of people with your product and your reputation. Your co-packer handles your formula. Your sanitation crew walks your facility floor. Your carrier hauls product worth thousands of dollars across state lines. And if any one of them causes a contamination event, a property loss, or a personal…
A single equipment failure in a cold storage facility — a malfunctioning compressor, a faulty sensor, a power interruption that goes undetected overnight — can spoil millions of dollars’ worth of perishable inventory. For food companies, that loss doesn’t just show up on a balance sheet. It disrupts supply chains, strains retailer relationships, and, depending…
What Importers of Foreign Specialty Goods Need to Know About Supply Chain Liability, Contract Protections, and Risk Management Imagine this scenario: you’re an importer of premium Italian specialty food products. You’ve built strong relationships with artisan producers overseas, and your products are in high demand across specialty grocers and distributors nationwide. Then one day, you…
If you’re exporting specialty foods or craft beverages overseas but don’t have enough product to fill an entire shipping container, you’ve probably been told to use LCL (Less than Container Load) shipping to save money. What the freight forwarder might not mention is that LCL creates specific insurance risks that don’t exist with full container…
And Where Insurance Programs Feel It First Tariffs are back in the spotlight, and for food importers and exporters the impact is rarely confined to a single line item. When duty rates move quickly, the effect shows up across landed cost, working capital, customs compliance, and—often overlooked—how certain insurance programs respond when a loss occurs.…
In today’s food industry, understanding how General Liability Insurance and Product Recall Insurance work together is essential, but often misunderstood. While both coverages play distinct roles, each is critical to protecting food companies from significant financial and reputational risk. Since the introduction of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2011, food manufacturers, processors, and…
Food products rarely travel by just one mode of transportation. A shipment might start in a refrigerated container on a vessel, transfer to rail at port, and complete its journey by truck—with warehouse stops in between. Each transition introduces new risks, different liability regimes, and potential coverage gaps that can leave your products vulnerable. How…