Labelling · allergens · recall risk
Professional indemnity – Nutritionist
You advise not only individuals but also producers, caterers and sports organisations. A mistake in a nutritional value calculation costs no one their health, but it can cost a whole batch of product.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Beroepsaansprakelijkheid – Voedingsdeskundige.
The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
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A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
A nutritionist's heaviest risk lies in the business work. A nutritional value calculation for a label, an allergen list, advice on a recipe or on shelf life is taken over one to one by the client. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 requires food information to be correct, and if an allergen is missing, a recall of the entire batch follows. The loss is then pure financial loss: printing, destruction, logistics and lost turnover at the producer.
Those costs are exactly what needs attention when you take out the policy. Recall and destruction costs are excluded on an ordinary professional indemnity policy in almost every case; for those there is separate product recall cover, which the producer usually arranges itself. Your own policy must at least cover the client's claim for the incorrect advice, and that calls for a description of your work that goes beyond nutrition education.
On top of that you often work with individuals: athletes, participants in a vitality programme, clients of an occupational physician. In that case damage to health can arise and injury to persons must be co-insured. Advice on supplements for competitive athletes carries a risk of its own: a product containing a prohibited substance costs the athlete a ban, and that is once again financial loss. See the hub page for the way the cover operates.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
What to look out for
Four subjects that lead to claims in advisory work on nutrition and product information.
Label and allergens: small mistake, large batch
Work with a fixed checking step: source data from the supplier, a second calculation and a written approval round with the client before anything goes to print. Record which version of the recipe your calculation is based on. If the producer then changes an ingredient without telling you, responsibility shifts, but only if you can prove it.
Advice to athletes and supplements
A positive doping test after your advice leads to a claim for missed competitions and contracts. Advise only on tested products, record the athlete's ultimate responsibility in writing and do not supply the products yourself, because then you also become a supplier with product liability under Article 6:185 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Your terms and the client's purchasing conditions
Declare your own general terms and conditions applicable and hand them over before or at the time the contract is concluded, as Articles 6:233 and 6:234 of the Dutch Civil Code require. If you accept a producer's purchasing conditions with an unlimited indemnity, you take on liability that would not exist without that clause, and that is a standard exclusion.
What the policy does not cover
Outside the cover are: recall, destruction and repackaging costs for products; administrative fines from the NVWA (the Dutch food and consumer product safety authority); guarantees and agreements as to results on weight, performance or shelf life; intent and wilful recklessness (Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code); and redoing your own calculation or report.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for the premium
- Balance of business and private work: advice to producers has a different loss profile
- Labelling and product development: the heaviest item because of the recall risk
- Guidance of individuals: determines whether injury to persons must be co-insured
- Working area: exporting products carrying your label data widens the risk
- Sum insured and excess: per claim and per insurance year
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A consumer with a nut allergy reacts to a product whose label you calculated | No | Provided that |
| Your client has to reprint the entire run of packaging because of a calculation error on your part | No | Yes |
| A caterer loses a contract because your shelf-life advice was wrong | No | Yes |
| You damage a weighing device in your client's laboratory | Yes | No |
| A competitor alleges that you used his recipe in your advice | No | No |
| You are unable to work for a long period and your client's product launch is put back six months | No | No |
Your client's printing costs are insurable loss. The fate of the batch itself follows a different route.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I calculate labels. What happens if a batch has to be recalled?
The costs of recalling and destroying products are excluded on professional indemnity insurance in almost every case. What is insurable is your client's claim for your incorrect calculation, in so far as it does not concern recall costs. Discuss this in advance and limit your liability in your terms, because this is the point at which files in this field come off the rails.
I advise only businesses. Does injury to persons need to be included?
If you never guide individual clients and do not advise on medical situations, cover for pure financial loss can be enough. As soon as you guide individuals even occasionally, give group sessions with individual advice or work with vulnerable groups, that limitation is risky. Better to have your activities described broadly than to argue about it afterwards.
A client insists that I accept his purchasing conditions.
Then read the liability and indemnity clause first. A clause under which you take on all consequential loss and recall costs falls outside your policy and is therefore entirely for your own account. Negotiate a limitation to your liability in law and to the sum insured. That is a common proposal and is accepted more often than you might expect.
I also give workshops on site. Is that included here?
The content of your workshop is, the rest is not. If a participant trips over your cable or the floor of the hall is damaged, that is injury and property damage and it belongs on a public and employers' liability insurance. Many venue operators also require that cover by contract before you may work there.
Read more
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