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Work out for yourself what it would cost.
Enter your details; you will receive a proposal within one working day.
We compare the offerings of several insurers
An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
With food it is not the surveyor but the regulations that decide whether a load still has any value. If the cold chain has been broken, the load space has not demonstrably been cleaned or there is a suspicion of contamination, the whole consignment goes, even where the taste and appearance are fine. There is no residual value and no partial loss: with these goods, rejection is almost always a total loss.
That makes the hygiene of the load space a condition of cover rather than good practice. Insurers require a cleaning and disinfection record between consignments, a ban on loading certain product groups together, and a watertight HACCP-based way of working. A load of cheese that smells of cleaning agent because the previous journey carried chemicals is not an accident but an organisational failure.
For the technology behind temperature control and the evidence of it we refer you to transport insurance for refrigerated transport. This page deals with the food safety rules that determine whether a consignment is still saleable.
What does transport insurance for foodstuffs cover?
The structure of the cover in three parts, with an overview per situation below.
The basis
Actual value
What the cargo is actually worth.
Not capped per kilogram
Regardless of who is liable
Including freight and costs
The difference
Liability
What a carrier bears at most.
CMR: 8.33 SDR per kilo
AVC: € 3.40 per kilo
Rarely the actual value
Optional
Type of cover
From limited to all risks.
All external perils
Limited perils
Storage in transit
What is covered
Situation
Carriers' liability
Goods in transit
Damage from an accident, up to the weight limit
Yes
Yes
Damage above the weight limit
No
Yes
Theft of the cargo
Sometimes
Yes
Damage with no identifiable fault
No
Yes
Storage during the journey
No
Sometimes
Inherent defect or inadequate packaging
No
No
This overview is general in nature and is not personal advice. What is actually covered, including exclusions, limits and the excess, is set out in the policy conditions and the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) of the insurer; you receive both before you take out cover. Taking out cover without advice? Then read what execution only means for you.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that make the difference between a policy that pays out and one that does not.
Rejection means no residual value
With industrial goods a partly damaged consignment can often still be sold at a discount. With foodstuffs that way out does not exist: rejected products may not go back into the chain and have to be destroyed. So set the sum insured on the full value of the consignment and not on an estimated loss, and take account of the costs of removal and destruction, which are not included on every policy.
You have to record cleaning and mixed loading
Record for each journey when the load space was cleaned, with what product and by whom, and keep that record. Taint and cross-contamination are the classic causes of loss and can in almost every case be traced back to a previous load. Insurers treat undocumented cleaning as a failure by the carrier, and the loss is then not an external peril but your own fault.
Shelf life and delay
With fresh produce the remaining shelf life runs on during every hold-up, whether that is a border check, a traffic jam or a waiting delivery point. A consignment that arrives with too few days left is refused by the buyer even though there is nothing wrong with it. That loss comes under delay and is excluded on virtually every policy. Agree in the carriage contract on the minimum remaining shelf life at delivery.
Recalls fall outside it
If a delivered consignment turns out afterwards to be unsafe, a recall follows with costs for tracing, retrieving, destroying and communicating. Those costs are separate from the cargo you carried and fall outside goods in transit insurance; there is separate recall cover for that. Fines from the regulator and your buyer's loss of turnover cannot be insured on this policy either.
What does your premium depend on?
Product group. Meat, fish, dairy, vegetables, dry groceries and drinks each carry their own risks and their own rules.
Residual value and disposal costs. Whether the costs of destroying and disposing of a rejected consignment are included.
Cleaning regime between consignments. The frequency and demonstrability of cleaning and disinfecting the load space.
Loading product groups together. Driving with separate compartments or with mixed loads leads to a different assessment.
Certification of the business. A demonstrably HACCP-based way of working and recognised chain certificates count in the underwriting.
Value per consignment. Because rejection affects the whole consignment, the full consignment value is the basis and not part of it.
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
How we arrange it
You request a quoteWe take stock of your situation, your risk and your wishes.
We compareseveral insurers, on premium as well as conditions.
You receive a proposalWith an explanation of the differences and the exclusions.
We arrange the switchIncluding cancellation, so there is no gap in cover.
Customers rate our service on four aspects: personal service, service delivery, availability and the outcome. The reviews are collected and published by NH1816 and come from customers who have actually taken out a policy with Finass Advies B.V. or reported a claim.
Only if the cause falls under the policy, for example a covered temperature deviation or a collision that damaged the packaging. If the consignment is rejected because the load space had not demonstrably been cleaned or because the wrong products were loaded together, that is a failure by the carrier and not an insured event.
Are the costs of destruction included?
Not on every policy. Rejected foodstuffs may not simply be thrown away and have to be disposed of through an approved processor, with the associated costs. Some insurers include those within clean-up costs, others do not. Ask about this expressly, because with a full consignment these costs can make up a substantial part of the loss.
Is taint from a previous load covered?
Hardly ever. Cross-contamination and taint arise because the load space was not cleaned or not cleaned properly, and that is an organisational failure. Insurers treat this as the carrier's own fault. A watertight cleaning record for each journey is the only way to show that the cause lay elsewhere.
Does the policy cover a recall?
No. Goods in transit insurance pays for the consignment carried. The costs of tracing, retrieving and destroying products already with buyers or consumers come under separate recall insurance. Fines from the regulator and your client's loss of turnover fall outside the cover in all cases.
Finass Verzekert is a trading name of Finass Advies B.V. We advise on and arrange non-life insurance on the basis of an objective analysis of several insurers, and receive commission for this from the insurer, which is included in the premium. You pay no separate advice fee. Before you take out cover, we establish your wishes and needs.
You will find our licence, KvK and Kifid details and our complaints procedure at the foot of every page.
