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Average Cost of Takeaway Insurance (2026)
Takeaway insurance costs from as little as £195 a year or so, but can rise to cost thousands of pounds a year depending on the coverage you need. If you're wondering how much takeaway insurance will cost in 2026, here is some updated information to get you started.
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How much does takeaway insurance cost?
In 2026, the cost of takeaway insurance in the UK generally ranges from just under £200 up to thousands of pounds a year, with an average baseline rate of around £675. Rates in this range could provide up to £2 million of public liability and product liability cover (e.g., to cover compensation claims if someone is injured by your food or slips in your shop) and £25,000 for basic contents cover.
If you have any employees, your insurance costs will be significantly higher because you're obligated by law to have employers' liability cover (e.g., to cover legal expenses and compensation claims if you're sued due to a workplace injury like a burn or slip). Adding employers' liability cover can increase your takeaway business insurance costs by 2X or more, as you can see in the table below.
For example, the cheapest takeaway insurance cost we found increased from £195 a year to roughly £800 a year with the addition of employers' liability. On average, employers' liability costs around £480 to £600 for a small takeaway shop.
| Average Cost of Takeaway Insurance | Low End | High End | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| £2m of public and product liability (no employees) | £195 | £1,620 | £675 |
| Cost including employers' liability | £800 | £1,920 | £1,175 |
| Cost including employers' liability and a large deep fat fryer | £1,115 | £2,100 | £1,445 |
There are many other factors that can affect your takeaway business insurance costs as well, from the location of your premises to what types of additional coverages you want. The cost of add-on coverages will vary from insurer to insurer and will depend on the details of your application, but you can get a rough idea of what you might need to pay for some of these coverages below.
- Large freestanding deep fat fryer with more than 5 litres of capacity: Can add in the range of £85 - £155 additional premium; not all insurers will cover this due to the high fire risk.
- Offsite catering: Could add roughly 5% - 10% or more to your premium; not all insurers will cover offsite catering.
- Legal cover: Costs around £80 in additional premium.
- Employers' liability: Can add £480 to £600 to a small takeaway business insurance premium.
- Business interruption: Prices vary greatly and depend on your turnover, but adding business interruption cover can easily double your insurance premium.
- Buildings: If you own your building, commercial property insurance will depend on factors like the current rebuild cost.
- Contents: Contents cover will depend on the replacement value of your equipment. For instance, it can cost around £180 to increase from £10k to £25k of cover, or £480+ to jump up to £100k of contents cover.
How to save money on takeaway insurance
One of the most reliable ways to save money on takeaway insurance is to check quotes from multiple sources before you commit to buy any insurance policy—this can be more easily accomplished by using a comparison site in many cases. In the takeaway insurance market, there is a significant variation in prices from insurer to insurer, so much so that in our recent tests some quotes came back up to 8X higher than the cheapest quotes for the exact same profile.
Checking the market is not only important when you're starting a new business—it's also critical to get a range of quotes at renewal time because insurance companies are known to hike rates at renewal, even if you haven't claimed or made any changes to your situation or cover.
Whether you are starting a solo takeaway shop to sell your renowned cakes and biscuits or a larger business with employees to serve hot takeaway lunches to a busy crowd, the cost of insurance will eat away at your profits, so it's worth finding the best deal for the coverage you need. This doesn't necessarily mean taking the absolute cheapest quote you find if the coverage exclusions (like deep fat fryer restrictions) aren't right for your specific needs.
Another way to save money on takeaway insurance is increasing your excess, but this isn't necessarily a good idea. Why? Because oftentimes your premium won't actually be reduced by much, and if you need to claim, you'll need to cover a larger out-of-pocket expense. In fact, a higher excess can make smaller claims unfeasible to make.
Finally, make sure that you buy the right cover for your needs. Many extra add-ons are valuable, but be sure you check the costs of those as well. Add-ons like legal cover are usually quite affordable, but be aware that extras like business interruption can be quite costly—this is because there is a lot of potential financial value in covering lost revenue if a fire or flood forces you to close temporarily.
Methodology
To find the average cost of takeaway insurance, we gathered dozens of quotes for post codes with typical rates in the UK, which we updated in March 2026 to reflect current market prices. We varied quotes by different factors to learn how factors like contents cover, turnover, employers' liability and legal cover affect takeaway insurance rates.
Please note that insurance prices can vary significantly from situation to situation depending on the details of your application. As a result, the price you need to pay might be higher or lower than the rates mentioned here. Use this information just as a rough guide to help you learn more about prices and how they different factors can affect insurance rates.