Food factories, packhouses, poultry and meat plants and cold stores are hard on equipment and closely audited. Hawthorne designs, installs and maintains CCTV, fire detection, access control and alarm monitoring for food producers across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, from our base in Norwich.
Short answer
A food site system has to satisfy the fire risk assessor, the food safety auditor and, at a slaughterhouse, the Food Standards Agency. That means a BS 5839-1 fire alarm with detectors chosen for dust, steam and cold; CCTV that survives washdown and records what a BRCGS or welfare auditor needs to see; and access control that keeps people out of high-care and sensitive areas. Our food clients include Banham Poultry and Del Monte, and we hold SSAIB accreditation (NORF034) for fire, intruder, CCTV and access control.
The rules that shape a food site system
Fire safety
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 the responsible person acts on the fire risk assessment, and the alarm is designed to BS 5839-1. Most production sites need an L-category system with automatic detection, not just call points.
Detector choice is where food sites differ. Optical smoke detectors give false alarms in flour, dust and steam, so multi-sensors or heat detectors usually suit production and wash areas. Freezers and cold stores often need aspirating or heat detection rated for the temperature. Wash-down areas need sealed or waterproof devices. Getting this wrong produces false alarms, which BS 5839-1 treats as a design and maintenance problem.
Where a DSEAR (Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002) assessment has zoned an area, for example around fine powders or an ammonia refrigeration plant room, any device installed in that zone must be certified for it. We work from the site's DSEAR assessment and zone drawings. Interfaces such as door release on fire alarm follow BS 7273-4, and plant shutdowns need a written cause-and-effect that is tested at service.
Food safety, food defence and welfare
BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 expects a documented site security and food defence assessment, controlled access to sensitive areas and a response to the threats it identifies. TACCP, usually based on PAS 96, looks at the same risks from the attacker's side. CCTV and access control are how most sites show those controls work.
In England, The Mandatory Use of Closed Circuit Television in Slaughterhouses (England) Regulations 2018 require CCTV covering every area where live animals are present, including unloading, lairage, handling, stunning and killing. Footage must be kept for 90 days and be available to the Food Standards Agency.
Hygiene and privacy
Cameras in production areas need housings rated for the cleaning regime: IP66 for general washdown, IP69K where high-pressure or steam cleaning is used. Polycarbonate domes keep cameras off the glass register. Cabling into high-care areas follows the site's hygiene-zone rules: sealed entries, nothing open above product, work planned around cleaning. Staff monitoring falls under UK GDPR, so a data protection impact assessment, clear signage and a written purpose come before installation. Our CCTV compliance guide covers the detail.
What a typical food site system looks like
- Fire detection: addressable panels with multi-sensors in production, heat or aspirating detection in cold and wet areas, waterproof call points in wash areas and sounder beacons where noise masks a sounder.
- CCTV: gates, weighbridge and goods-in, production lines, hand-wash and hygiene barriers, cold stores, dispatch and waste compounds, managed centrally through software such as HikCentral.
- Access control: Paxton or Hikvision readers on external doors, turnstiles and barriers, with separate permissions for high-care, chemical stores and control rooms.
- Monitoring: dual-path signalling for fire and intruder alarms, and temperature alarms on chillers and freezers sent to a monitoring centre. Our partner ARC, Fenix Monitoring, holds NSI Gold approval.
What we have done for food producers
Food production is one of our established sectors, with long-term CCTV, access control and fire alarm work across poultry, meat, fresh produce and cold storage sites in East Anglia.
Banham Poultry, Attleborough. We maintain and extend a large multi-camera CCTV system across the site, including the bird welfare cameras the slaughterhouse CCTV regulations require, along with Paxton access control and alarm monitoring. Much of the production-area work is done out of hours so lines keep running.
Del Monte. We maintain Del Monte's fire alarm systems. Our remedial work there has included replacing contaminated detectors in production areas, tracing faults caused by water ingress, protecting detectors from interference and producing new zone charts so activations are read correctly.
Other food sites. We maintain CCTV at poultry and meat processing plants across East Anglia, have brought a cold store's cameras, doors, face recognition and time and attendance onto a single platform, and have upgraded fire and intruder alarm signalling at poultry sites ahead of the phone line switch-off.
What food site call-outs have taught us
- Moisture kills cameras. Corroded connector pins and wet back boxes cause many of our call-outs, so we specify sealed connectors and food-grade housings from the start.
- Cameras can become an audit finding. Peeling paint and pitted domes are foreign-body risks; we have replaced cameras flagged in a GMP audit.
- Dust and steam contaminate smoke detectors. They drift into pre-alarm and false alarm; the fix is the right detector type, not repeated cleaning.
- Network switches are single points of failure. A single failed switch can take a whole site's cameras offline, so we document the network and keep spares on site.
- Recording capacity runs short. Adding cameras without adding storage quietly cuts retention, so our extension quotes state the effect.
CCTV placement: what we check on a food site
- Start from the risk map, then zone the site and treat high-care as a separate area.
- Capture faces and access events at every controlled door, not just a wide shot.
- Cover handover points: goods-in, allergen stores, line changeovers, packing and loading bays.
- Use two angles on the highest-liability points, mounted low enough to identify people.
- Keep cameras out of direct spray, plan for condensation at cold store doors and test for glare off stainless steel.
- At slaughter sites, follow the animal from unloading through lairage, stunning and bleed-out without gaps.
- Check time sync, retention and how quickly footage can be exported for an auditor or a claim.
Maintenance and response
Food sites usually need more than the minimum. BS 5839-1 recommends fire alarm servicing at intervals of no more than six months, and large multi-panel sites are often serviced quarterly. Maintenance contract customers get a 4-hour response to emergencies and same-day response to non-emergency faults, and we work out of hours when production requires it.
What it costs
- CCTV for a smaller food unit, roughly 10 to 25 cameras: £3,500–£7,500 installed.
- CCTV for a processing plant of 25 cameras or more: £10,000–£20,000+; 50-plus cameras with analytics and access integration: £25,000–£100,000+.
See our fire alarm cost guide, servicing cost guide and pricing calculator. All figures exclude VAT and are confirmed at a free site survey.
Frequently asked questions
Do slaughterhouses have to keep CCTV footage for 90 days?
Yes, in England. The Mandatory Use of Closed Circuit Television in Slaughterhouses (England) Regulations 2018 require CCTV in all areas where live animals are present, footage kept for 90 days and access for the Food Standards Agency. The recorder needs enough storage for every welfare camera at the required quality.
What fire detectors work in a cold store or wash-down area?
Standard optical smoke detectors are a poor fit. Cold stores and freezers usually need aspirating or temperature-rated heat detection, and wash-down areas need sealed heat detectors and waterproof call points. Dusty or steamy production areas generally suit multi-sensors.
Which IP rating do cameras need in a food factory?
IP66 handles general washdown. Where high-pressure or steam cleaning is used, specify IP69K housings, ideally stainless steel or food-grade with a polycarbonate dome. Place cameras out of direct spray where possible and plan cleaning access.
Can we put cameras on production lines without breaching GDPR?
Yes, if the purpose is clear and proportionate. Complete a data protection impact assessment, tell staff where cameras are and why, and restrict who can view and export footage. Take particular care near welfare areas: where a hygiene check needs a camera, cover only the hand-wash point or entrance and record the reason.
Can you work around our production schedule?
Yes. On food sites most installation and fault work in production areas is done out of hours or at weekends, and camera cleaning is booked for when lines are stopped.
Do you install systems in DSEAR or ATEX-zoned areas?
We work from your DSEAR assessment and zone drawings. Any device inside a zoned area must be certified for that zone, so we confirm the zoning with you before we specify equipment.
Get a food site survey
Contact the team for a free site survey. We walk the site with your technical or engineering manager, check coverage against your risk assessment and give you an itemised quote. See our accreditations and our Norfolk and King's Lynn pages.
About Hawthorne
Hawthorne is a Norwich-based commercial security and fire systems company, working with food producers, care providers, schools and industrial customers across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and the wider East of England. Hawthorne acquired Security Solutions Yes Limited in December 2024 and rebranded as Hawthorne in January 2026.
Last updated: October 2026