Café and Restaurant Insurance, matched properly

• Public and products liability Injury to customers and damage to their property, such as a slip on a wet floor. A claim that someone fell ill after a meal may also fall here¹.
• Fit-out, contents and stock Damage from events such as a kitchen fire, under the property and contents sections of a business pack¹.
• Glass Shopfront and splashback glass. Leases often make the tenant responsible for it (see below)^{1, 2}.
• Machinery breakdown and spoilage Separate sections for a failed fridge or freezer and for the stock it spoils (see below)¹.
• Business interruption Lost income when you can’t trade after an insured event¹.
• Theft and money Break-ins, stolen stock and stolen takings, subject to cash limits¹.
• Workers’ compensation Most employers must hold it. It doesn’t cover sole traders³.

A liability-only policy doesn’t cover your own fit-out, contents, stock, glass or lost income¹.

• Machinery breakdown Pays to repair or replace the fridge, freezer or cool room itself¹.
• Stock deterioration Pays for the stock that spoils as a result. A business pack can include one without the other¹.
• Wear and maintenance Gradual wear and lack of maintenance are commonly excluded, particularly on refrigeration and extraction, according to upcover¹.
• Power cuts A seafood distributor lost its stock when the supplier cut power in a March 2022 storm. The insurer relied on its flood exclusion, but AFCA found the power was cut for safety and ordered $154,839 plus interest, even though the business had no stock deterioration cover¹⁰.
• Lost income When a freezer room’s condenser caught fire, one business pack paid its machinery breakdown and stock deterioration sums insured, $7,500 and $20,000, less excesses. AFCA found the policy didn’t pay business interruption after a breakdown¹¹.

• Café, sewer leakPaid $110,049.82 for contents, cleaning, six days of lost income and claim preparation. Claims for $86,800 of crockery and $557,904 of whisky were refused without proof of ownership and loss, and AFCA agreed. October 2025¹⁷.
• Café and pizzeria, fireThe insurer refused the claim and cancelled the policy because the accountant who applied said there had been no claims in five years, when there had been five. AFCA ordered the policy reinstated, the claim assessed and $2,500 paid for stress. February 2025¹⁸.
• Freezer breakdownA Melbourne business’s freezer motor burnt out. The insurer paid for the motor but not the spoiled food, because deterioration of stock cover hadn’t been selected. AFCA agreed, and found the cause was breakdown from normal deterioration, not a heatwave. October 2025¹⁹.
• Café, typhoid closureA staff member was diagnosed and the café had to stop trading for testing. Business interruption paid $3,738²⁰.
• Pizza shop, freezerThe compressor burnt out. Machinery breakdown paid $1,799 for the repair and lost stock, after the excess²¹.
• Freezer failureA claim of over $35,000 for lost stock and business interruption²².