Having a business within the food industry is intimidating and requires a lot of effort to ensure the health and safety of both your customers and employees.
Protecting your restaurant with insurance can help secure the future of your business and save you from costly claims and lawsuits that arise from food poisoning, bodily injuries, and other unfortunate events.
How Much Does Restaurant Insurance Cost?
Restaurant insurance costs vary quite greatly from business to business. This is because a number of factors are considered that can fluctuate the price of the policy quite a bit.
Generally speaking, the average restaurant owner in the U.S. pays around $175 per month or $2,100 per year on business owner’s insurance.
Chefs, waiters, cleaning staff, and virtually anyone working at the restaurant on a daily basis are exposed to a certain level of risk varying from slips and falls due to wet floors to burns from hot pans. Having worker’s compensation insurance will protect your staff by covering any lost wages, medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, and more in case they get injured on the job.
Restaurants almost always offer alcoholic beverages to their customers. Liquor liability insurance - which in some states is needed for you to obtain a liquor license - costs about $45 per month, totaling $545 a year, and protects your business from accidents arising from intoxicated customers.
Slip-and-fall accidents can occur due to wet surfaces, or uneven groundwork in your property. For $70 per month - or about $805 annually - restaurant owners can get restaurant liability insurance, which helps your business cover costs related to third-party injuries and property damage.
What Types of Insurance Do Restaurants Need?
Whether you own a small business or are part of a franchise, there are a number of insurance policies available for you as a restaurant owner. The level of coverage you go for will depend on the type of restaurant you run, the number of employees you have, the state you operate out of, and various other factors.
Please take a look below to find out some of the most popular insurance policies amongst American restaurant owners.
Why Do Restaurants Need Insurance?
Restaurant staff are always on their feet. A single mistake can lead to a slip, trip, or fall, which can lead to serious bodily injuries - especially in the kitchen where staff work around hot pans and boiling water all the time.
Refrigerators or other expensive equipment are prone to breaking down, especially in extreme weather conditions - such as warm kitchens. Without the proper equipment, your ingredients are susceptible to spoilage, leading to a case of food poisoning, which can easily lead to trouble.
Other circumstances like theft, vandalism, and poor weather conditions can cause damages to your restaurant property and cause it to shut down for some days, which will result in it losing money.
In other cases, in many states, restaurant owners are required to take a certain level of cover before they are allowed to legally operate their business.
This is why restaurant insurance is essential as the risks are endless, and trouble can come from anywhere. With the right restaurant insurance in place, your business will be financially covered no matter the accident or the legal claim that arises as a result.
Typical Restaurant Insurance Claims
Most insurance claims that restaurant owners experience are related to bodily injuries, property damage as a result of theft, vandalism, and poor weather conditions, food poisoning, and other unfortunate events.
Having restaurant insurance won’t prevent these accidents and unfortunate events from taking place but at least it will protect you and your business from any financial liabilities that may arise in the event of a lawsuit.