Bringing Home the Bacon: Emerging Issues in Food Contamination Law

Also published on Advisen Front Page News (May 23, 2016)

Outbreaks of food contamination, most recently Chipotle’s E. coli outbreak, garner not only media attention but also a flood of class actions, shareholder derivative suits and criminal investigations. Contaminated food has also produced an unprecedented wave of product recalls, some of which are at the behest of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), while many others are voluntary and prophylactic. Product recalls are very expensive, and companies have looked to their insurance companies to cover these costs. Unfortunately, insurance companies often contest such claims, sometimes successfully. As evidenced here, understanding the policy terms on which coverage often hinges is essential to obtaining insurance that will cover the risks specific to your business.