You know many of the risks in connection with your restaurant such as employment practices liability, employee dishonesty and product liability. But what sets your restaurant constitutes the greatest risk Two risks that can be quickly run your restaurant in bankruptcy is a fire which damage your facility or attached to a food borne illness.
According to the National Fire Protection Association cooking equipment accounted for 14% of the total number of non-residential structural fires in the United States between 1999-2002 and is the second cause of fires next to arson.
The CDC reports that the presence of certain food borne diseases is increasing from 2005 to 2006. Import of foods in the United States has risen by 50% in recent years. The FDA is currently only able to verify approximately 1% of the 25,000 shipments, enter in the United States each day from 100 countries.
The possibilities for being linked with a food borne illness have probably never been higher as a result of:
Increased imports of food from all over the world
Decline in FDA's ability to inspect the import
More advanced methods such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) link food borne disease to its source.
Traditionally high turnover rate in the industry, which makes it difficult to train and educate employees in food safety procedures.
Legal doctrines strict liability and constructive knowledge
Restaurants must now more than ever, be aware of the supply chain and take proactive measures to ensure the quality of the food they buy and serve to their customers. It is not enough to look at your insurance renewal and that you have fire insurance, business interruption and first party food contamination coverage.
Too many restaurant owners feel a false sense of security, inadvertently during the insured person and find themselves with inadequate coverage. You cannot change anything about the coverage borders or political provisions, where a loss has occurred
Coverage forms available for real estate and business income is relatively standardized by ISO commercial insurance services. However, the same does not hold true when it comes to first party food contamination (see September issue of upscale quality assurance newsletter)
Manage your exposure by:
The establishment of the amount and type of coverage you need.
Understanding of what it will trigger coverage.
Determine how long the bearer will continue to pay your loss of income, advertising expense and employees lost wages including your server tips, when you open again.
Creation of loss control and safety measures to prevent these types of losses
What should you do
Obtain a certified assessment for reconstruction cost of your building.
Determine the replacement cost for all of your equipment, inventory and business personal property.
Review the terms of your lease, as they relate to property insurance requirements, in particular, improvements and betterments.
Keep copies of all financial records, customer, customer lists, and insurance policies on an off site location.
Complete a business loss of income worksheet.
Complete an analysis of potential Post crisis and incident response communications cost including the cost of a pr company.
Achieve a loss control inspections of a qualified restaurant loss control specialist
Implement an ongoing loss-control and safety programme, including an emergency or crisis management plan in response.
Read and review the actual policy provisions that trigger coverage and manages the payment of your loss.
Fire insurance, including business interruption and food contamination coverage is relatively inexpensive when considering premiums paid versus the amount of risk you are migrating to the insurance company. And even though the likelihood of fire or food contamination can be thought of as small ramifications can be disastrous.
With affordable premiums and free coverage analysis, there is absolutely no room for risk for your restaurant.
You can still learn more on www.health.com and http://www.patient.co.uk/
www.familydoctor.org
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