Student Aid on the Web Skip Navigation

Career Details : Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders

   << Back    Add Career to MyFSA

Description

Operate or tend cooking equipment, such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers, to prepare food products.

Experience

No previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, a person can become a general office clerk even if he/she has never worked in an office before.

Education

These occupations may require a high school diploma or GED certificate. Some may require a formal training course to obtain a license.

Training

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few days to a few months of training. Usually, an experienced worker could show you how to do the job.

Tasks

  • Turns valves or starts pumps to drain product from equipment and transfer to storage, cooling or further processing areas.
  • Places products on conveyor or cart and monitors flow.
  • Measures or weighs prescribed ingredients, using scales or measuring containers.
  • Listens for malfunction alarms, shuts down equipment, and notifies supervisor.
  • Observes gauges, dials, and product texture or color and adjusts controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients.
  • Operates and controls equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats, and tanks, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.
  • Reads recipes or formulae to determine ingredients or quantities of ingredients needed.
  • Activates agitators and paddles to mix or stir ingredients and stops machine when ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
  • Records production and test data, such as processing steps, temperature and steam readings, cooking time, batches processed, and test results.
  • Examines sample of product, tests color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity, and removes impurities from product.
  • Notifies or signals other workers to operate equipment or when processing complete.
  • Starts conveyers, machines, or pumps and sets temperature, pressures, and time controls.
  • Cleans and washes equipment, using water hoses, cleaning or sterilizing solutions, or rinses.
  • Removes cooked material or products from equipment.
  • Pours, adds, or loads prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using hoist.
  • Admits required amounts of water, steam, cooking oils, or compressed air into equipment.
  • Operates auxiliary machines and equipment, such as grinders, canners, and molding presses, to prepare or further process products.

    Related Careers

    Important Abilities

    General Work Activities

    Important Skills

    Frequent Work Context

    • Indoors
    • Degree of Automation
    • Importance of Being Sure All Is Done
    • Consequence of Error
    • Importance of Being Exact or Accurate

    Related Majors

    Major Add to MyFSA
    Dairy/Livestock/Poultry Production Systems/Managementadd Dairy/Livestock/Poultry Production Systems/Management to MyFSA
    Food/Agribusiness Managementadd Food/Agribusiness Management to MyFSA
       TOP    

    • End of Page