Everyone in hospitality seems to be chasing the same things right now: AI; Loyalty; and Guest data.
Respect. That’s fine. And Branded agrees with each of the above as important pursuits. But I want to use this week’s Deal Room to put a spotlight on a lesser-known shift that’s happening in a place nobody is looking at, underwriting.
The old model was built on guesswork and for decades, insurance in foodservice has been a blunt instrument. Historical losses, static audits, self-reported data and a broad “category risk” assumptions.
What does that really mean? Underwriters weren’t pricing risk. They were approximating it. And when something went wrong, especially a recall, the response wasn’t precision. It was panic. Pull everything. Shut it down. Sort it out later.
But wait, something has changed b/c now the data Is showing up.
Enter Starfish Network, the platform that’s empowering transparency, safety, and trust in food supply chains worldwide.
But zoom out, b/c this is bigger than one company. We’re watching the emergence of a new underwriting layer that includes real-time traceability; product-level visibility; and verified, system-generated data (not human-reported).
This is the shift; risk is no longer inferred. It’s observed and recalls just got rewritten.
Let’s keep it simple (Schatzy).
The old recall playbook: “We think it’s this batch…” pull product across regions; overcorrect, overpay, overshoot claims.
The new playbook: identify exact lot; trace exact path; and isolate only what matters.
That’s not optimization. That’s the difference between a bad day and a balance-sheet event.
Recall risk just got a score and here’s the real unlock, a standardized rating for food risk. Let’s call it what it is, a credit score for your supply chain.
Thanks to Starfish, for the first time, insurance companies can make intelligent and informed decisions about their recall policies. Starfish has created a supply-chain traceability assessment rating, The STAR Index.
The Star Index converts traceability + compliance into a number. It creates comparability across operators, and gives insurers something they’ve never had before, a clean signal. And once you have a signal…you can price it.
This isn’t about insurance, it’s about capital and this is where most people miss it. Better underwriting doesn’t just mean fewer claims and tighter policies. It means capital flows differently.
Strong operators deserve lower premiums and therefore, of course, weak operators deserve higher costs (or no coverage at all). Carriers that are more confident can be more aggressive.
And the real twist? With better information and insights (or the Star Index), insurance starts funding prevention, not just losses. Here’s what makes this even more interesting, this only works at scale and as more suppliers, distributors, and operators plug into networks like Starfish, visibility improves, blind spots disappear, and systemic risk declines.
And insurers? They don’t price individuals, they price systems.
To learn more about Starfish Network, it’s Star Index and opportunities to engage with us, please click here (or contact me directly).
