Insurance for Your B.C. Fast Food Restaurant

May 20, 2025

Food poisoning, grease fires, equipment breakdown, and customer slips and falls are all risks that fast food restaurant owners can face. Your business insurance needs to minimize these risks as a B.C. fast food restaurant owner.

You’ll need to customize your B.C. fast food restaurant insurance to make sure you are protected against lawsuits, customer injuries, and expensive repairs.

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What types of B.C. fast food outlets need a restaurant insurance package?

You need an insurance package if you operate a fast food restaurant that sells:

• Pizza
• Burgers and fries
• Fish and chips
• Pitas
• Tacos
• Fries
• Fried chicken
• Hot dogs
• Ice cream
• Sandwiches

How will a fast food insurance package protect my B.C. business?

You need to protect your fast food restaurant from the potential risks associated with its daily operations.

Without business insurance, you would have to cover these costs out of your own pocket. Can you afford that kind of risk?

A fast food insurance package can help protect you from these 3 common claims:

1. A customer slips and falls in your sandwich shop due to a wet floor, breaks an ankle and sues you.
2. An employee steals cash from your B.C. fast food restaurant.
3. A customer says your food made them sick.

What’s in a fast food restaurant insurance package?

Minimize lawsuit potential with commercial general liability (CGL) insurance

CGL insurance helps protect your B.C. fast food restaurant from a loss if you’re found legally liable for third-party bodily injuries involving a customer, supplier, or member of the public.

CGL can help pay legal and medical costs if a customer is injured at your restaurant; for example, they slip on wet floor or on an icy patch on your restaurant’s sidewalk.

It’s important to note that without commercial liability insurance, you would be responsible for paying any liability costs out of your own pocket.

Your CGL policy also can help protect you from libel, slander, copyright infringement, and false advertising allegations.

How much CGL insurance does a B.C. fast food restaurant need?

It’s not uncommon that a fast food restaurant would carry at least $2 million in CGL coverage, depending on the size of your operation.

The size of your B.C. fast food restaurant, number of employees, and claims history will be factors in how much commercial general liability insurance you need.

Commercial property insurance

Whether you own or rent your British Columbia fast food restaurant location, commercial property insurance protects your business and its contents from insured risks that can happen, such as fire, theft, flood, or vandalism.

If vandals smash a store window, commercial property damage could cover the costs of replacing the window and cover any damage or vandalism inside your business.

Commercial property insurance typically includes flood insurance, but what if there’s heavy rain and the sewers back up and your business is flooded?

You should consider adding sewer backup or overland flood coverage extensions, which standard business insurance policies typically do not cover.

Equipment breakdown insurance

Your B.C. fast food outlet likely has expensive electrical and mechanical equipment to keep your products either frozen or refrigerated.

Equipment breakdown insurance provides coverage for property damage from the sudden and accidental breakdown of insured equipment not automatically covered by a standard commercial property policy.

Product liability insurance

If a customer gets sick after eating your food, product liability insurance can help cover the cost of the customer’s medical expenses and your legal and court-related costs to defend yourself.

Crime insurance

It should be part of your B.C. fast food restaurant insurance package.

Crime insurance can protect you against theft, credit card fraud, forgery, counterfeit, and other types of fraud that employees sometimes commit.

Cyber insurance

If you process debit and credit card transactions, online or in person, you need cyber insurance. Your system could be vulnerable to cyberthieves.

Without cyber insurance, you will have to pay out of your pocket for the cost of restoring your computer system if it’s hacked.

You may also be liable for damages to third parties whose information has been stolen and you may have to pay for notification expenses to inform customers affected by a breach.

Commercial auto insurance

If you have a business car, van, or truck that you use for your B.C. fast food outlet, it won’t be covered by your personal car insurance policy. You will need commercial auto coverage as part of your insurance package.

What if my fast food restaurant delivers food via a third-party app and I get sued?

As the business owner, liability falls back on you for any products sold through any platform. Read through the agreement you have with the third-party delivery provider to see if there could be any terms and agreements that remove your liability once your fast food restaurant’s food enters the delivery car.

Business interruption insurance

Business interruption insurance helps support you when your B.C. fast food restaurant can’t operate due to a covered loss. Bills like repairs, inventory, rent, and payroll keep rolling in even if your business is forced to close.

Some examples of losses that can force your B.C. fast food outlet to shut down:

• Your restaurant is damaged by fire or vandalism
• A disruption in your supply chain
• Damage to a neighboring business prevents your business from operating

Business interruption insurance can help with these expenses:

• Payroll
• Rent
• Utilities
• Property taxes
• Alarm monitoring
• Relocation of your fast food business

Final thoughts

Fast food restaurant insurance is designed to protect you against risks that come with serving food and drinks, including third-party bodily injuries and property damages, accidents, and equipment breakdowns.