Is Your Fish and Chip Shop Properly Insured?

As the insurance fever for fast foods is on the rise, fish and chip shop insurance takers are also increasing day by day. A snack of hot and crisp, batter dipped and deep fried chunks of fish or cod served or packed with vinegar and chips is fast catching up as the comforting food in these times of recession. As the business rises, fish and chip shop owners are trying to minimize the risk of losses involved in running these shops. There is no second opinion that a fish and chip shop is a disaster waiting to happen.

Insurance companies are not put off by the size of these risks, in fact, they will help you by offers of staff safety training, once you find the right company and policy, your risks becomes theirs, and they like to help protect it, which is good for both parties.

When an insurance company inspects your shop, before it offers you a policy, there are several areas will they pay close attention to. The hoods over the deep fat frying cookers collect an oily build-up over time, a real risk should any spark hit it and ignite the residue. Cleaning this area and others where oil splashes reach is a job for a specialist, so look at recommendations from your local businesses and find a reliable recommended cleaning contractor. Other risks include staff and customer injury due to oil on floors causing accidents, and the high temperatures of equipment resulting in burns and damage to electrical systems.

Once you contact an insurer, they may ask you to make some changes regarding your safety rules and regulations at work. These ca be as simple as making sure all staff wear hair protectors, and proper non-slip shoes to making sure hoods over frying machines and other areas that tend to get covered in oil vapors from the cooking processes are cleaned on a schedule by professionals who know how to eliminate this risky deposit that is the cause of many chip shop fires. They may also ask how floor spills are cleaned up, which may seem strange, until a worker or member of the public slips and makes a huge claim against you for personal injury.

Any fish and chip insurance policy will need the cleaning of extraction canopies and ductwork once in a year with the help of independent contractors. Although this may seem like an additional expense, it will be helpful to the owner in the long run as there is less combustion build up so lesser chances of accidents happening. Some insurance companies would also readily provide for free and unlimited hygiene and safety training to the employees of the shop. The aspects insured under the fish and chip insurance policy coverage are business interruption due to any reason, cash in the shop, good in transit home delivery items as well as stock replenishments, frozen food stored in the shop, bad debts if the owner holds any, employers liability as well as public and product liability. In addition to this the owner can get optional coverage for the building and any legal expenses involved.

Since the costs of re-building and re-stocking a fish and chip shop can be extremely high, insurance is an absolute necessity to conducting business, and should be reviewed and increased on a regular basis to keep up with current prices. Separate policies can be added to cover all the usual items needed in any business, such as computers, safes, stocks and time lost due to closure after a fire or any other accident.