Occupational Employment Statistics
51-3093 Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend cooking equipment, such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers, to prepare food products. Excludes “Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders" (51-3091).
| Manufacturing | 850 | $24.28/hr |
| Trade, Transportation and Utilities | N/A | N/A |
| Professional and Business Services | 60 | $17.59/hr |
- Read work orders, recipes, or formulas to determine cooking times and temperatures, and ingredient specifications.
- Admit required amounts of water, steam, cooking oils, or compressed air into equipment, such as by opening water valves to cool mixtures to the desired consistency.
- Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.
- Set temperature, pressure, and time controls, and start conveyers, machines, or pumps.
- Collect and examine product samples during production to test them for quality, color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity.
- Notify or signal other workers to operate equipment or when processing is complete.
- Observe gauges, dials, and product characteristics, and adjust controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients.
- Record production and test data, such as processing steps, temperature and steam readings, cooking time, batches processed, and test results.
- Pour, dump, or load prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using a hoist.
- Turn valves or start pumps to add ingredients or drain products from equipment and to transfer products for storage, cooling, or further processing.