Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
Agriculture, Food and Natural ResourcesO*NET 51-3093.00United States
Operate or tend cooking equipment, such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers, to prepare food products.
- Median annual earnings
- $41,600
- Projected change
- +4.5%
- Typical education
- High school diploma or less
- Employment
- 34.47K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
86% of the workforce
Growing to 36.04K by 2035
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ASU learning related to this career
These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
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The work
What food cooking machine operators and tenders do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Clean, wash, and sterilize equipment and cooking area, using water hoses, cleaning or sterilizing solutions, or rinses.
- Read work orders, recipes, or formulas to determine cooking times and temperatures, and ingredient specifications.
- Observe gauges, dials, and product characteristics, and adjust controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients.
- Measure or weigh ingredients, using scales or measuring containers.
- Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.
- Record production and test data, such as processing steps, temperature and steam readings, cooking time, batches processed, and test results.
- 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.
- Remove cooked material or products from equipment.
- Pour, dump, or load prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using a hoist.
- Listen for malfunction alarms, and shut down equipment and notify supervisors when necessary.
- Notify or signal other workers to operate equipment or when processing is complete.
- Turn valves or start pumps to add ingredients or drain products from equipment and to transfer products for storage, cooling, or further processing.
- 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.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $31,678
- 25th percentile
- $36,192
- 50th percentile
- $41,600
- 75th percentile
- $47,382
- 90th percentile
- $54,413
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $41,600 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
+4.5%average or slower
202534,469 jobs
2035 projected36,036 jobs
1,567 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- High school diploma or less
- 86%
- Certificate
- 14%
- Some college
- 0.1%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Dryer Operators40 postings
- 02Brewers2 postings
- 03Donut Fryers1 postings
- 04Fermentation Technicians1 postings
- 05Food Team Members1 postings
- 06Grill/Fry Cooks1 postings
- 07Safety Associates1 postings
Top employers
- 01Foster Farms7 postings
- 02Utz Quality Foods6 postings
- 03McCain Foods5 postings
- 04Foster Poultry Farms4 postings
- 05Crispy Maid2 postings
- 06J.R. Simplot Company2 postings
- 07Our Home2 postings
- 08Rich Products Corporation2 postings
- 09Actalent1 postings
- 10Barton Staffing Solutions1 postings
- 11Capistrano's Bakery1 postings
- 12Conagra Brands1 postings
- 13Crux Fermentation Project1 postings
- 14Garden Path Fermentation1 postings
- 15Melt'D Fresh Salads And Grilled Subs1 postings
- 16Rudolph Foods1 postings
- 17Snackco Of America1 postings
- 18Try Us1 postings
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