Operate or tend cooking equipment, such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers, to prepare food products.
U.S. Workers
27,660
Median Salary
$40,550
10-Year Growth
+0.6%
Annual Openings
4,400
Typical entry: High school diploma or equivalent
17 of 17 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.
AI: Fully automatable - Tending and controlling kettles, cookers, vats and boilers is routinely handled by automated control systems that AI can monitor and adjust for cooking processes.
Set temperature, pressure, and time controls, and start conveyers, machines, or pumps.
AI: Fully automatable - Setting and managing temperature, pressure, time controls and starting conveyors or pumps are standard programmable tasks already automated and overseen by AI-enabled control logic.
Observe gauges, dials, and product characteristics, and adjust controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients.
AI: Fully automatable - AI systems using sensor feeds can continuously observe gauges and product characteristics and adjust controls in closed-loop fashion to maintain process conditions.
Listen for malfunction alarms, and shut down equipment and notify supervisors when necessary.
AI: Fully automatable - Alarm detection, automated shutdown interlocks, and notification systems are standard and can be reliably managed by AI and automation.
Turn valves or start pumps to add ingredients or drain products from equipment and to transfer products for storage, cooling, or further processing.
AI: Fully automatable - Actuating valves and pumps is standard industrial control/automation and can be fully automated and orchestrated by AI and control systems today.
Measure or weigh ingredients, using scales or measuring containers.
AI: Fully automatable - Measuring and weighing with scales is straightforward to automate and is routinely handled by automated dosing and sensing systems.
Read work orders, recipes, or formulas to determine cooking times and temperatures, and ingredient specifications.
AI: Fully automatable - Reading and interpreting recipes, work orders, and setting times/temperatures is a purely information task that AI can fully automate.
Place products on conveyors or carts, and monitor product flow.
AI: Fully automatable - Placing products onto conveyors and monitoring flow is commonly automated with feeders, vision systems, and sensors and can be fully handled by current systems.
Activate agitators and paddles to mix or stir ingredients, stopping machines when ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
AI: Fully automatable - PLC/robotic control systems combined with sensors and vision can start/stop agitators and detect mixing completeness, so this task is fully automatable by 2025.
Notify or signal other workers to operate equipment or when processing is complete.
AI: Fully automatable - Notifying or signaling workers is a communication task easily handled by automated alerts, scheduling systems, and AI-driven coordination.
Record production and test data, such as processing steps, temperature and steam readings, cooking time, batches processed, and test results.
AI: Fully automatable - Recording production and test data is routinely automated via digital sensors, SCADA/MES systems, and AI-driven logging and reporting.
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.
AI: Fully automatable - Admitting controlled amounts of utilities (water, steam, oils, air) via valves is a standard automated control function that AI and PLCs can fully manage.
Clean, wash, and sterilize equipment and cooking area, using water hoses, cleaning or sterilizing solutions, or rinses.
AI: Partial - Clean-in-place (CIP) and automated sterilization exist and can be AI-scheduled and controlled, but manual cleaning and inspection remain necessary in many setups.
Remove cooked material or products from equipment.
AI: Partial - Removing cooked material is a physical, often messy and high-temperature task that some robotic systems can do in controlled setups but is not universally fully automatable as of 2025.
Pour, dump, or load prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using a hoist.
AI: Partial - Pouring, dumping, or loading bulk ingredients can be automated in many facilities with hoppers and hoists, but variability, weight, and cleanliness issues mean it's not universally fully automatable.
Collect and examine product samples during production to test them for quality, color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity.
AI: Partial - Analysis of quality attributes can be automated with sensors and lab instruments, but physical sample collection and some complex sensory tests still often require human involvement.
Operate auxiliary machines and equipment, such as grinders, canners, and molding presses, to prepare or further process products.
AI: Partial - Many auxiliary machines (canners, grinders, presses) can be automated, but the wide variety of setups, changeovers and product-specific handling still require human intervention in many cases.