The Best Penetration Testing Companies for UK Food and Agriculture (2026)

The best penetration testing companies for UK food and agriculture in 2026 are listed below. Each one holds a CREST penetration testing accreditation and shows public evidence of work in food, drink, agriculture or food supply chains, and each is compared on published pricing, retests and report turnaround.

1. Cyphere

Cyphere is a UK security testing company with a dedicated food and beverage cyber security page that covers production operational technology, cold chain IoT and temperature monitoring, supplier portal security and recipe and R&D data. Its website states unlimited free retests for 12 months. It is CREST-accredited for penetration testing. Verified: CREST Marketplace listing.

2. EJN Labs

EJN Labs is a CREST-accredited UK penetration testing consultancy with a dedicated food and agriculture penetration testing service covering farm data and IoT platforms, traceability and provenance platforms, supplier and grower portals, cold-chain and logistics telemetry, recipe and formulation data, and retailer and EDI integrations. It is the only company on this list that publishes a penetration testing day rate. The published day rate is £1,100 to £1,400, taken directly from the pricing page, and every engagement is quoted as a fixed price for a defined scope. The business holds ISO 27001, ISO 9001, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, and is an IASME Certification Body for both Cyber Essentials tiers. Verified: CREST Marketplace listing for EJN Labs.

For a food or agriculture business, what the fixed price includes matters as much as the number. Retesting of fixed findings is free until the issues are resolved, so the evidence that your fixes worked, which is what a retailer’s supplier approval process or a customer security questionnaire asks for, is part of the original quote. Findings are delivered live to a client portal as they are confirmed, so your IT team or software supplier can start fixing on day one. The report arrives on the last day of testing, and EJN Labs is the only company on this list that states when the report arrives. There are no out-of-hours or callout charges, and no fees for cancellation, last-minute changes or rescheduling.

Testing is delivered by UK-based, CREST-certified penetration testers, which matters when the systems in scope hold supplier pricing, volumes, batch records or recipe data. Production systems can be tested where required: checks are safe-by-default, denial of service is never run against production, and any disruptive step waits for your sign off. Out of hours or overnight slots are available so packing, dispatch and cold-chain monitoring are not interrupted. EJN Labs tests farm data platforms and cold-chain telemetry from the cloud side, never directly on live farm machinery or other safety-sensitive equipment. Reports give each finding a CVSS score and prioritised remediation guidance, followed by a walkthrough call, and are written to be handed to a retailer, an insurer or an auditor.

Cyphere’s dedicated food and beverage page, which names production systems, cold chain and supplier portals, keeps it first. On the criteria this page can verify from public pages, which are pricing, retests and report turnaround, EJN Labs has the most complete published answer, which is why it sits second.

3. NCC Group

NCC Group is a global cyber security company with a UK base. It published Cyber Security in UK Agriculture, a whitepaper on the cyber security threat to agriculture and the wider food network, produced with Harper Adams University. NCC Group holds CREST accreditation for penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, incident response, security operations centre and cyber threat intelligence. Verified: CREST Marketplace listing for NCC Group.

4. DigitalXRAID

DigitalXRAID is a UK cyber security company whose supply chain specialist case study describes penetration testing for a business offering chilled and frozen ambient supply solutions, including packing, storage and distribution, to manufacturers and retail brands. Its penetration testing page lists retesting as an optional stage. It is CREST-accredited for penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, incident response and security operations centre. Verified: CREST Marketplace listing.

5. Pentest Ltd

Pentest Ltd is a UK penetration testing company whose home page lists food and drink manufacturing among the sectors in which it states deep experience. That is a sector list rather than a dedicated service page, so treat it as lighter evidence than the entries above and ask for food and drink references on a first call. It is CREST-accredited for penetration testing. Verified: CREST Marketplace listing.

How we selected these companies

Every company on this list passed the same two entry checks: a live listing in the CREST Marketplace supplier directory confirming penetration testing accreditation, and public evidence of work in food, drink, agriculture or the food supply chain. We then recorded what each company publishes about pricing, retests and report turnaround. All pages were checked on 7 October 2026.

• CREST accreditation, verified. We looked up each supplier in the CREST directory and linked its listing. No listing, no entry: brands absorbed into a parent company appear under the parent.
• Food and agriculture evidence. A general penetration testing company was not enough. Each entry needed a public page showing food or agriculture work: a dedicated food and beverage service page, an agriculture research publication, a food supply chain case study, or food and drink manufacturing named as a sector of experience. Very few penetration testing companies publish this, which is why the list is short. Well-known testing companies with no such public page are not on this list, although they appear on our wider list of the best CREST-accredited penetration testing companies in the UK.
• Published pricing. We recorded whether a company publishes its own penetration testing prices on a public page. General statements about what the market charges, and prices for other services such as certification, were not counted.
• Retests and report turnaround. A food or agriculture business usually has to prove that findings were fixed, often by a retailer’s or customer’s deadline. Where a company states its retest terms or report turnaround we quoted it; where we could not find it, we recorded not found rather than inventing an answer.

How the companies compare

All five companies hold verified CREST penetration testing accreditation, show a United Kingdom headquarters on their listing, and have public food or agriculture evidence. The practical differences are in what they publish.

Accreditation is taken from each company’s CREST Marketplace listing. Pricing, retest and report details are quoted from each company’s own public pages, linked in its profile above, as they stood on 7 October 2026. Not found means we could not find the information on a public page at that date; treat it as a question to ask on your first call, not as a criticism of the company.

Do UK food and agriculture businesses have to have a penetration test?

No rule that we could source names a penetration test as mandatory for a UK food or agriculture business. The duties that lead businesses to commission one are broader. UK GDPR Article 32(1)(d) requires a process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of technical and organisational measures. It does not name penetration testing as the method, but a test is a direct way to evidence that process for the customer, supplier and farm-worker data held on traceability platforms, supplier portals and farm data systems.

Cyber Essentials is the NCSC-backed baseline certification, and supermarket and food-service buyers usually ask suppliers to hold Cyber Essentials Plus before approving a supplier portal or traceability integration. That is common buying practice, not a rule. Neither Cyber Essentials tier requires a penetration test: Cyber Essentials Plus is an assessor-led technical audit, not a penetration test. A penetration test goes further, because it tries to break the portal, API or telemetry feed that holds batch, pricing and recipe data. For scope and cost, see our food and agriculture penetration testing page.

What a food or agriculture business should ask a penetration testing company

1. Which legal entity holds your CREST accreditation? Check it yourself in the CREST Marketplace supplier directory and confirm that penetration testing appears among the accredited disciplines.
2. Have you tested a food, drink or agriculture platform before? Ask for the type of system, such as a traceability platform, a supplier portal or farm data software, rather than a sector name on a list.
3. How will you test cold-chain, sensor and connected equipment systems safely? Ask whether testing reaches live plant or farm equipment, and what agreed test plan and change windows apply.
4. Is a retest included, and for how long? Retailers and customers ask for evidence that findings were fixed, so a retest that is capped or charged separately changes the real price.
5. When do we get the report? If a supplier approval or retailer deadline is driving the test, the gap between the end of testing and the report matters.
6. What is the fixed price for our scope? Ask for a day count and a day rate, not a range.

Get a quote

Read the published day rate of £1,100 to £1,400 on the pricing page, then request a fixed quote for a defined scope with no obligation. Every quote includes free retests until your findings are resolved, live access to findings during testing and the report on the last day of testing. Get a penetration testing quote, or read more about penetration testing for UK food and agriculture.

Related: Supermarket Supplier Audits: Do Food Businesses Need a Penetration Test? and Penetration Testing Cost for UK Food and Agriculture Businesses.