A Cautionary Tale: The Importance of Diligence and Candor in Food Product Contamination Insurance

"For never was there a story of more woe…" than that of the policyholder that fails to disclose information in its insurance application. The importance of a policyholder’s candor in the insurance application process was recently illustrated in H.J. Heinz Company v. Starr Surplus Lines Insurance Company, No. 15-cv-0631, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11737 (W.D. Pa February 1, 2016), where a Court ruled that Starr can rescind the $25 million product contamination policy it issued to Heinz.