Home › Work activities › Operate cooking, baking, or other food preparation equipment
O*NET detailed work activityOperate cooking, baking, or other food preparation equipment
Stays humanHands-on work
5 jobs11 tasks
This is physical, in-person work with real objects, tools, equipment and places that change from day to day. AI can't do it for you.
Part of Operate industrial processing or production equipment, under the O*NET work activity group Controlling Machines and Processes. Individual tasks below can carry a different label when their own wording calls for it (0 AI-ready, 0 AI-assist, 11 stays human).
Tasks built on this activity
- Set up, operate, and tend equipment that cooks, mixes, blends, or processes ingredients in the manufacturing of food products, according to formulas or recipes.
- Follow recipes to produce food products of specified flavor, texture, clarity, bouquet, or color.
- Set time and speed controls for mixing machines, blending machines, or steam kettles so that ingredients will be mixed or cooked according to instructions.
- Place dough in pans, molds, or on sheets, and bake in production ovens or on grills.
- Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.
- Operate or tend machines to mix or blend any of a wide variety of materials, such as spices, dough batter, tobacco, fruit juices, chemicals, livestock feed, food products, color pigments, or explosive ingredients.
- Operate or tend equipment that roasts, bakes, dries, or cures food items such as cocoa and coffee beans, grains, nuts, and bakery products.
- Turn valve controls to start equipment and to adjust operation to maintain product quality.
- Homogenize or pasteurize material to prevent separation or to obtain prescribed butterfat content, using a homogenizing device.
- Cool food product batches on slabs or in water-cooled kettles.