Nobody approved it before you sold it, and that is the underwriting problem.

Products liability

Injury or illness attributed to an ingested product.

Without it — The exposure is per consumer, and a formulation reaches all of them.

Product recall

Withdrawal for contamination, adulteration or an undeclared ingredient.

Without it — Excluded from liability, and the likeliest event in the category.

Advertising and claims liability

Claims over what the label and marketing said the product does.

Without it — The most common suits in this sector are about the claim, not the capsule.

Contract manufacturer exposure

Your position when the maker is somebody else and the brand is yours.

Without it — The brand is who consumers sue whatever the manufacturing agreement says.

Retailer requirements

Limits, additional insured status and vendor wording that stockists demand.

Without it — A retail listing is contingent on a certificate you must be able to produce.

Why is this sector hard to insure?

Because supplements are not approved before sale, the ingredient list moves, and the claims are made in marketing. Underwriters respond by reading the formulation and the website rather than the balance sheet. Specific ingredients — stimulants, hormone precursors, botanicals with known interactions, weight loss and anything targeted at children, athletes or pregnancy — restrict or close the market. So do structure-function claims that edge toward treating a condition.

We use a contract manufacturer. Are we covered by theirs?

Not meaningfully. Being an additional insured on the manufacturer’s policy is worth having and is not a substitute: the brand owner is who consumers, retailers and regulators pursue, and the manufacturer’s limits are shared across every brand they produce for. An adulteration event usually affects several of their clients at once, which is exactly when a shared limit fails. Carry your own, and get the indemnity in the manufacturing agreement reviewed.

What about the claims we make on the label?

They are a real and often uninsured exposure. Class actions over efficacy and labelling are more common in this category than injury suits, and a general liability policy’s personal and advertising injury cover is narrower than brands assume — it is aimed at defamation and infringement, not at whether the product works. Get the marketing copy reviewed against what the substantiation actually supports, and ask specifically how the policy treats a false advertising claim.