1) Employers’ Liability Insurance (Usually Legally Required)

If you employ staff, employers’ liability (EL) is typically required by law in the UK. It covers claims for injury or illness suffered by employees as a result of their work, including legal defence costs.

Food manufacturing environments have higher injury exposure due to machinery, manual handling, wet floors, temperature extremes, forklifts and fast-paced production.

2) Product Liability Insurance (Essential)

Product liability protects your business if your products cause injury or illness to consumers or third parties. It also covers legal defence costs. For manufacturers, product liability is a core requirement-often written into customer contracts.

Product liability exposures include contamination, foreign body incidents, packaging failures, incorrect labelling, and allergen errors. The right limit depends on your distribution footprint, customer base, and contract requirements.

3) Public Liability Insurance

Public liability covers third-party injury or property damage arising from your business operations-such as visitor accidents at your premises, or damage caused during deliveries or contractor work. It’s often purchased alongside employers’ liability and product liability.

Public liability is especially relevant if you have site visitors, drivers, contractors, engineers, auditors, or customer inspections.

4) Buildings, Contents & Stock Insurance

Property cover protects your premises and assets against insured events such as fire, flood, storm, theft and accidental damage. For food and beverage manufacturers, it typically includes production equipment, packing lines, warehouse racking, office equipment and high-value stock-often including chilled or frozen goods.

Accurately valuing assets and stock is vital. Underinsurance can reduce claims payments. Your policy should reflect: replacement costs, lead times for machinery, and seasonal stock peaks.

5) Business Interruption Insurance (Often the Most Important)

Business interruption (BI) covers loss of gross profit and extra expenses if your operations are disrupted by an insured event (such as fire, flood or machinery damage). For manufacturers, BI can be more valuable than the property claim itself because downtime can lead to lost contracts and supply chain penalties.

Key BI considerations:

• Indemnity period – how long your policy will pay for losses (often 12–24+ months depending on rebuild lead times)
• Gross profit sum insured – should reflect realistic revenue and margin
• Increased cost of working – ability to continue operations via overtime, outsourcing, or temporary facilities

6) Machinery Breakdown & Deterioration of Stock

Many food operations are highly dependent on machinery and refrigeration. A sudden electrical or mechanical failure can stop production, create urgent maintenance costs, and potentially compromise chilled or frozen stock.

Machinery breakdown insurance can cover repair/replacement costs following sudden failure. Deterioration of stock cover (often an extension) can protect against spoilage due to refrigeration failure or power outages, subject to terms such as alarm requirements and temperature monitoring.

7) Product Recall & Contamination / Food Safety Risk Cover

This is where many food manufacturers discover gaps. Product liability protects against third-party injury/illness claims, but recall and contamination costs can arise before any claim exists. Specialist cover can help fund the operational costs of withdrawals, disposal, testing and crisis management.

If you supply retailers, wholesalers, food service contracts, or private-label products, recall/contamination cover can be particularly important to protect your customer relationships and respond quickly under pressure.

8) Cyber & Data Liability (Manufacturing Systems & Controls)

Modern manufacturing relies on connected systems: ERP, warehouse scanning, supplier portals, QA documentation, temperature monitoring, and in some cases SCADA/PLC environments. Cyber incidents can halt production and dispatch, creating significant downtime losses.

Cyber insurance can provide incident response, forensic investigation, system restoration, cyber business interruption and liability cover for privacy/GDPR claims, subject to wording. For manufacturers, the focus is often on operational resilience and recovery speed.

Other Covers Food Manufacturers Often Consider

Depending on your business model, contracts and risk profile, you may also consider: