With Thanksgiving here again, spare a thought for the considerable logistics that go into making the almost 400-year-old tradition happen, and the considerable insurance that de-risks the event annually.
On Thursday, almost 48 million turkeys are expected to be consumed, served up with sides of 80 million pounds of green beans, 2.4 billion pounds of sweet potatoes, and 25 million pounds of pumpkin for dessert.
Supplying demand of this scale takes months of planning, such as protecting the turkeys from birth to consumption age and then transporting them to the packing plants and beyond.
Eric Conklin, livestock underwriter at
XL Catlin, said: “Livestock coverage protects the value of their [farmers’] flocks from other perils such as a power outage or ventilation malfunction that could cause suffocation or heat stress among the flock and result in death.” While more specialized policies protect against risks such as avian influenza.
Around 14,400 big rigs are required to deliver those turkeys in time for dinner, with a further 65,050 big rigs transporting the sweet potatoes, green beans, and cranberry sauce sides.
Those trucks need protecting and perhaps surprisingly, the holiday season is prime time for truck hijackings, according to XL Catlin’s senior vice president and chief underwriting officer of Inland Marine, Anne Marie Elder. “Believe it or not, food and drink are among the most popular hijacked items. Everyone needs food. Stolen food is easy to move and therefore, a tempting target for thieves,” she said, explaining that cargo criminals are targeting a wider variety of low-risk, high-reward shipments, such as food and drink.
“That’s why we provide comprehensive motor truck cargo insurance that keeps our clients’ cargo safe from everything from theft and, when endorsed, mechanical breakdown and resultant temperature change. And, for clients that must store their goods, even temporarily, there’s warehouse legal liability insurance to cover such losses,” Elder said.
Most turkeys are delivered frozen and keeping them frozen has its own challenges. Brian Strain, XL Catlin’s head of Equipment Breakdown insurance said: “Turkeys are highly susceptible to infections. Whether the turkeys are live or frozen - it’s important to make sure that the storage facilities are ventilated, that the humidity is kept at an appropriate level, and that the refrigeration is stable. If the refrigeration or ventilation fails, there’s no turkey for dinner.”
But of course there are cases of contamination and recall. In 2011, one major poultry processor undertook a Class 1 recall of over 36 million pounds of turkey due to a risk of elevated levels of Salmonella Heidelberg which led to 136 people officially sickened by the multi-state outbreak according to Centers for Disease Control.
“Contamination can occur in a lot of different ways and from the farm to the processing plant and right through the distribution chain,” said John Turner, XL Catlin’s VP and head of product recall, USA & Canada.
Contamination or mislabeling can also occur during processing as well, such as with one grocery that voluntarily recalled vegan pumpkin pies because they contained undeclared walnuts which would pose a risk to those who have nut allergies.
“Most companies know it is in their best interest to voluntarily recall a product because they will have a difficult time restoring consumer and regulator confidence if they are forced to recall their products by FDA or the USDA’s FSIS,” said Turner. “And more and more are relying on product contamination insurance to help not only address the possible costs of recall but also to enlist the advance planning and risk consulting that insurers like
XL Catlin offers to help avoid contamination incidents and recalls altogether.”
With all that planning and preparation, Thanksgiving dinner is certainly food for thought.
