Catering insurance checklist: what a caterer should carry

The caterer insurance checklist

QUICK ANSWER

Catering usually carry general liability, liquor liability and commercial auto. Caterers cook in a commissary and serve somewhere else, bring staff, equipment and often alcohol into venues that each want a certificate, and send vans full of hot food through traffic to arrive on time. The venue and the client's vendor desk ask for proof of each. The checklist below says what every item does, who requires it and how to check it on the policies you already have.

Reviewed by Michael LaBarbera, Licensed property & casualty agent, Provident Financial Group · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026 Updated Oct 14, 2026

Who asks a caterer for what

Who	What they usually want to see
Event venues & caterers' clients	General liability naming the venue, and liquor liability where you pour
Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding	General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella
Landlords & commercial leases	General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation

Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.

How to check what you already have

General liability declarations page. Three liability numbers matter: each occurrence, general aggregate and the products–completed operations aggregate. Then the forms list: blanket additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording satisfy every contract; scheduled forms satisfy one.
Liquor liability declarations and forms. The limit, and the forms list checked for an assault-and-battery exclusion, which removes the most common claim.
Auto schedule. Every vehicle listed with the right garaging address and use; symbols that include hired and non-owned auto; physical damage with the lender as loss payee where the vehicle is financed.
Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
Equipment schedule. Owned items scheduled above the per-item threshold, a blanket limit for small tools, leased or rented equipment included, and the valuation (replacement cost or actual cash value).
Products–completed operations. The aggregate, any vendors endorsement naming buyers as additional insureds, and exclusions for specific products or markets.
Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.
Business owner's policy declarations. Liability limits on the first page, then the property section: building (if you own), business personal property, business income and the named extras such as spoilage, equipment breakdown or employee dishonesty. Confirm the property values are current.
Hired and non-owned auto. Look for the symbols 8 and 9 or an endorsement by that name on the auto or general liability policy; without it, staff in their own cars are uninsured on company business.
Special events coverage. Whether the annual policy already covers your events or each needs a separate policy, and the additional-insured wording venues ask for.

What usually goes wrong for caterers

Pouring at an event under a general liability policy with no liquor coverage, because the client supplied the wine.
Rented and owned equipment in transit and at venues, uninsured off premises.
A hood-cleaning or suppression-service condition in the property policy with no record it was met.
Employees delivering in their own cars with no hired and non-owned auto.
An assault-and-battery exclusion on the liquor policy, which removes the most common claim in a bar.
A personal auto policy on a truck with the company name on the door.

What underwriters will ask a caterer

Events per year and typical attendance, whether staff serve alcohol, the van and equipment schedule, and the venues served
Seating, hours, cooking methods and the hood and suppression system's last service
Delivery: your own drivers, third-party platforms or both
Share of sales that is alcohol
Server training, closing hours and any entertainment or dancing
Each vehicle, its garaging address, radius and who drives it

Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.

Renewal timing

Audits at year end compare payroll, receipts and subcontractor costs with the estimate, so keep the wallet's size figures and the subcontractor certificates current. Start comparing sixty days before expiration, and ask for the limits the next contract will need rather than the ones the last one did.

Questions people actually ask

The client buys the alcohol and we pour it. Do we need liquor liability?

Yes. Serving is the exposure, not selling, and general liability excludes claims from serving alcohol whoever paid for it. Venues know this and ask for liquor liability on the certificate.

Each venue wants its own certificate. Is there a faster way?

Live certificates from the wallet are issued per venue with the additional-insured wording each one asks for, and update themselves when a policy renews. A caterer with forty venues a year keeps forty links rather than issuing forty PDFs.

Does my policy cover food that spoils when the power goes out?

Only with a spoilage endorsement or a package built for food businesses; standard property forms exclude it. Contamination coverage, which pays for a health-department closure and the cleanup, is a separate endorsement too.

Does general liability cover a fight or a drunk-driving claim after we served someone?

No. Liquor liability does, as long as the policy does not carry an assault-and-battery exclusion. Check the forms list; a liquor policy with that exclusion covers very little of what actually happens after midnight.

Can I keep my work truck on my personal auto policy?

Usually not once the truck is titled to the business, carries tools or a logo, or is driven by employees. Personal policies exclude business use beyond commuting, and a denied claim after an accident is an expensive way to find that out. The state auto minimums on the state pages are floors; contracts ask for more.