Food and Product Safety Litigation: How Will It Affect General Liability Insurers?

From spinach to pet food, peanut butter to seafood, tires to toothpaste, and most recently children's toys, there has been an extraordinary number of food and product recalls in recent months. The litigation stemming from these recent product and food safety failures presents a number of important insurance questions under general liability policies. These include questions about the scope of the products-operations hazard, whether non-products coverage is implicated by new theories advanced by the plaintiffs' bar, whether 'no injury' claims for economic harm can be shoehorned into coverage, and whether the many class action claims seeking medical monitoring for potential bodily injury will be covered under general liability policies. In the context of the lead paint toy recalls, the meaning of lead paint exclusions may also be at issue. In addition, as with traditional products liability litigation, the effect of the sistership, insured's own product, and impaired property exclusions will also be important in determining the extent to which general liability coverages may respond to the new wave of food and product safety litigation.