Public Liability Insurance for Specialty Food Products

PLI for Specialty Food Products

Public liability insurance (PLI) exists for almost every small business, and specialty food products businesses can rest assured that public liability insurance exists for their business as well. Whether your specialty food is cupcakes or weinerschnitzel, you can complete your business with the self-assurance that public liability insurance has you covered.

So what exactly can PLI do for you and your business? Let’s take a look at everything that public liability insurance encompasses and how it can be applied to your business.

PLI Defined

First, let’s look at the definition of public liability insurance. PLI is insurance that covers your liability in case of a public incident. This means that PLI will pay for compensation and legal fees if a member of the public — either your customer or just a general member of the public — is unintentionally injured by your property, product or employees.

In the case of specialty food product businesses, where many businesses may not have a typical store front or cafe, this often covers your business in case of food poisoning. However, if you do have a store front, the liability insurance would also cover your place of business. Let’s look at all the possible coverage:

Covers your place of business: If a member of the general public were to be injured in your cafe due to your negligence, public liability insurance would kick in. This does not include employees, who should be covered under worker’s compensation.

• Covers injuries caused by your employees: If one of your employees, however, were to unintentionally injure a customer or general public member, you would be covered.
• Covers customers from product injury: If you provided a customer with a faulty product, like an improperly cooked cupcake, and they became ill, public liability insurance would provide coverage.
• Covers members of the public from injuries sustained outside of the store front: If you are a featured food vendor at a tasting event, the public liability insurance would also cover the food, other products, materials, etc. in the case of an injury (as long as you are at fault).

PLI and Your Specialty Food Products Business

Although PLI is available to cover you and your business in an unfortunate event, public liability insurance (like any insurance) should only be used as necessary. This means that you should do everything in your power to ensure your business runs smoothly and injury free. This will both keep premiums low and encourage repeat business.

For your business, this means that all employees should carefully follow hand washing, counter cleansing, and other food preparation protocol at all times. Additionally, if you have a store front, you can help keep customers safe by assessing the dangers that may exist in your store and fixing them as soon as possible. And, of course, employees should be fully trained on customer safety basics as well.

Following all of the public liability tips and purchasing PLI can help you stay in business, help you stay safe, and keep your customers from harm.

Tagged as: food, Public Liability