MFE Insurance offers restaurant insurance policies to protect restaurant owners from liability as a result of food safety and storage malpractice, employee negligence, unlawful hiring, and more. By failing to acquire proper coverage, your restaurant may be liable for a variety of lawsuits that may result in total liquidation and loss of various licenses.
Moreover, restaurants that serve both food and alcohol run the risk of added legal repercussions and should be insured with a liquor license. This can protect your restaurant from facing serious charges (financial or otherwise) in the event that a patron causes property damage or injures someone as a result of intoxication.
Restaurant Insurance Policies
Our restaurant insurance policies can be tailored for your restaurants requirements based on your clientele and venue. This ensures that the cost and scope of your coverage aligns with your business’ needs. Learn more about our unique Restaurant Insurance offerings below.
General Liability Insurance
General Liability Insurance helps protect your restaurant from lawsuits and allegations pertaining to property damage and bodily harm while in or around your restaurant. For example, if a patron slips and falls, or a server spills food and ruins a customer’s dress, general liability insurance will cover these “third-party” claims in the event of a lawsuit. General Liability Insurance also protects against certain claims of slander and libel against restaurant owners, as well as other “general” claims.
General Liability Insurance policies at MFE Insurance cover the cost of investigating claims and defending against third-party lawsuits. This compensates attorney fees, court costs, witness fees, settlements, and court-ordered judgments. The General Liability Insurance policy may also cover an injured party’s immediate medical expenses and the cost of repairing or replacing damaged property.
General Liability Insurance can cover the costs related to claims of:
- Bodily injury or property damage: in the event of bodily harm (a patron slips and injures themselves) or property damage (a server ruins a patron’s possessions)
- Reputational harm: for claims of malicious prosecution, libel, slander, wrongful eviction, violation of privacy
- Advertising errors: in the event of copyright infringement via advertising
- Medical payments: to cover medical costs if a patron (non-employee) sustains an injury at your restaurant
Product Liability Insurance
Product liability insurance (a subsidiary of General Liability Insurance) will cover you and your restaurant if your food products were to make someone ill as a result of spoilage or other food safety violations.
For example: If salmon was undercooked and accidentally served, resulting in hospitalization for food poisoning, you could face a weighty lawsuit. Product liability insures against these types of claims so that you don’t lose your food license or worse.
Liquor Liability Insurance
If your restaurant distributes or serves alcoholic beverages, you can be held liable if inebriated customers cause injury or damage to property. Liquor Liability Insurance will cover you and your business from claims that occur in the event that a patron injures someone or who incurs property damage as a result of being overly intoxicated.
For example: If a server provides alcohol to an intoxicated customer, who then drives home and causes an accident, you may be held accountable and sued. Liquor Liability Insurance helps protect you and your restaurant from these highly susceptible lawsuits and other alcohol-related incidents.
Assault & Battery Insurance
If a physical altercation at your restaurant causes a patron to be injured, your business could potentially be held liable for their injuries and medical financial costs. Assault and Battery Insurance can help protect you from claims related to physical altercations between patrons at your restaurant, insuring against claims that you are responsible.
For example: If an argument leads to a tussle (or a full-on dogfight) at your restaurant and someone gets physically injured, they can sue your for damages. Our Assault and Battery Insurance will cover you and your business for the legal fees and settlements associated with these claims (ie, doctor bills, lawyer fees, etc).
Property Insurance
When disaster strikes (such as a fire), many restaurants lack the means to recover, unfortunately forcing them to resign almost overnight. Property Insurance covers your business against damages to your restaurant building and assets due to fire and other covered causes. With Property Insurance, food business owners can insure their business space, equipment and inventory from damages caused by natural disasters, fire, accidents, theft or vandalism, ensuring that they have the resources to reopen in the event of an incident.
Property Insurance policies at MFE Insurance cover business-related property damage that has occurred at your establishment. This includes repairing and replacing damage to your restaurants structure, content, fixtures, inventory, computers and other related hardware, as well as water backup, sewer, or drain damage.
For example: If a fire in the kitchen results in significant property damage, property insurance will pay to replace damaged property, inventory and other accessories, as well as reimbursing your loss of income during the period of restoration.
Automobile Insurance
If you use a vehicle for your business operations, it may not be covered under your personal automobile insurance. Automobile Insurance covers owned and rented vehicles while used for your business. There are two main components to auto coverage, Liability and Physical Damage. Auto Liability covers against bodily injury and property damage done to others, while Physical Damage (comprehensive & collision) covers against theft and damage to the vehicle.
For example: If one of your employees (full or part time) uses a company vehicle and gets in a fender-bender, Commercial Auto Insurance will cover damages to both parties, insuring for medical and financial expenses as for both your employee and the other person(s) involved in the accident.
Workers Compensation Insurance
Workers compensation insurance, otherwise known as ”workers comp” is a program mandated by the state which provides employees consistent payments to recompense their injury (or sickness) resulting from a work-related accident. The business insurance consultants at MFE Insurance will educate you on the restaurant industries’ specific rules and regulations to ensure that your business is properly covered.
Workers Compensation Insurance will cover the medical costs from the injury or illness, replacement income, costs to retrain the employee, and provide compensation for any permanent injuries. Workers Compensation will also recompense an employee’s family in the event that they (the employee) are killed on the job.
For example: An employee slips and falls behind the bar while working their shift, worker’s compensation will cover their medical bills and the wages they miss while they are recuperating from their injury.
Equipment Breakdown Insurance
For every restaurant, the food is the heart and soul. Of course, cooking requires an expanse of essential machinery, appliances and equipment, from chef’s knives to industrial ovens, to walk-in freezers, blenders and pressure cookers. If any one item breaks down, the restaurant could potentially suffer. In the event of an electrical surge or breakdown, where all or several of your facilities are damaged, your restaurant may not be able to function. For these reasons, Equipment Breakdown Insurance policies will cover all the tools and equipment needed to operate your restaurant in the event of a malfunction or breakdown.
Equipment Breakdown Coverage will cover losses caused by power surges, electrical arcing, short circuits, mechanical breakdown, boiler damage, motor burnout, and operator error. In addition to compensating the funds to replace or repair the damaged equipment, Equipment Breakdown Insurance also covers any losses that are incurred due to the breakdown. This includes business income losses, spoilage loss, expenses incurred to minimize further loss, and expenses incurred to expedite repairs.
Be advised: Equipment Breakdown Insurance does not cover machinery or equipment that has broken down due to age or improper maintenance.
For example: In the event that a power surge fries your walk-in fridge, freezer, ovens and all other kitchen appliances, Equipment Breakdown Insurance will provide the fund needs to replace these items, as well as all other related-losses including those lost due to lost business, food spoilage, and losses to hasten repairs.
Spoilage Insurance
In the event of a sudden temperature change or power outage, “perishable stock” is at risk of spoiling, contaminating it, resulting in a loss of a significant investment. Spoilage Insurance is for these situations, where a lack of sufficient refrigeration causes food to spoil. Spoilage Insurance coverage is imperative for restaurants, considering the high risk of power outages and other electrical malfunctions. Spoilage Insurance will cover all the expenses accrued as a result of food spoilage, including the product itself and the expected loss of business as a result.
For example: If a lightning storm were to knock out our electricity overnight, raising the walk-in fridge temperature to 75 degrees, and spoiling all of your produce, dairy products and meat, Spoilage Insurance would cover the loss of all your food and the loss of business until it was repaired.
