# 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.

- Code: 51-3093.00 (O*NET-SOC; SOC 2018 51-3093)
- Family: [Production](https://foundation.org.ai/occupations#family-51), one of its 114 occupations
- Tasks: 17 tasks (14 core and 3 supplemental)
- Page: https://foundation.org.ai/occupations/51-3093.00
- JSON: https://foundation.org.ai/data/tasks/51-3093.00.json

## What the work is made of

1. Clean, wash, and sterilize equipment and cooking area, using water hoses, cleaning or sterilizing solutions, or rinses.  
   Core task · Task 4949 · Rated by 56 people who do the job, August 2021
2. Read work orders, recipes, or formulas to determine cooking times and temperatures, and ingredient specifications.  
   Core task · Task 4948 · Rated by 57 people who do the job, August 2021
3. Observe gauges, dials, and product characteristics, and adjust controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients.  
   Core task · Task 4947 · Rated by 56 people who do the job, August 2021
4. Measure or weigh ingredients, using scales or measuring containers.  
   Core task · Task 4952 · Rated by 56 people who do the job, August 2021
5. Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.  
   Core task · Task 4951 · Rated by 56 people who do the job, August 2021
6. Record production and test data, such as processing steps, temperature and steam readings, cooking time, batches processed, and test results.  
   Core task · Task 4944 · Rated by 56 people who do the job, August 2021
7. Set temperature, pressure, and time controls, and start conveyers, machines, or pumps.  
   Core task · Task 4950 · Rated by 56 people who do the job, August 2021
8. Remove cooked material or products from equipment.  
   Core task · Task 4954 · Rated by 55 people who do the job, August 2021
9. Collect and examine product samples during production to test them for quality, color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity.  
   Core task · Task 4946 · Rated by 57 people who do the job, August 2021
10. Pour, dump, or load prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using a hoist.  
   Core task · Task 4958 · Rated by 57 people who do the job, August 2021
11. Listen for malfunction alarms, and shut down equipment and notify supervisors when necessary.  
   Core task · Task 4945 · Rated by 55 people who do the job, August 2021
12. Notify or signal other workers to operate equipment or when processing is complete.  
   Core task · Task 4955 · Rated by 55 people who do the job, August 2021
13. Turn valves or start pumps to add ingredients or drain products from equipment and to transfer products for storage, cooling, or further processing.  
   Core task · Task 4956 · Rated by 56 people who do the job, August 2021
14. 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.  
   Core task · Task 4953 · Rated by 54 people who do the job, August 2021
15. Activate agitators and paddles to mix or stir ingredients, stopping machines when ingredients are thoroughly mixed.  
   Supplemental task · Task 4959 · Rated by 55 people who do the job, August 2021
16. Operate auxiliary machines and equipment, such as grinders, canners, and molding presses, to prepare or further process products.  
   Supplemental task · Task 4960 · Rated by 55 people who do the job, August 2021
17. Place products on conveyors or carts, and monitor product flow.  
   Supplemental task · Task 4957 · Rated by 56 people who do the job, August 2021

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## Where this comes from

Quoted from O*NET 29.0, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, under CC BY 4.0: free to copy and reuse, with credit. Nothing on this page is written by the Org.AI Foundation.
