Different types of food establishments essentially present the same risks to insurers. Whilst there can be a vast difference in the type of food cooked, how it is cooked and how busy the business is, most underwriters will tend to have a very simple, dual pricing, for takeaway insurance.
The dual pricing only refers to the fire risk presented by the business. If you have a fixed frying range, as we describe it, the Frank Ford type, then you will present a slightly increased fire risk (to an insurer) and consequently you will need to pay a higher premium.
It is always best to declare the fullest information possible, to prevent any problems in the event of a claim. So, Chinese takeaway insurance is really no different from Cantonese, Vietnamese, Italian or Spanish – to an underwriter.
Specialist policies are not really available across the market. If there is one it tends to only have cosmetic differences aimed at trying to gain market share. The nuts and bolts of the policy really are the same. If, as you have in Scotland, it is a Chinese takeaway and fish & chip shop, then it needs to be declared as such.
The only real difference to the insurers may relate to cooking using a wok. They will put on a condition excluding losses attributable to fires from unattended woks whilst cooking. It is difficult to repudiate a claim on this condition, it is really there to remind the business owners that they must not leave a wok, over a naked flame cooker, unattended.