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.
31,250 people do this job in the US. $41,590 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 7%
- 0%
- 93%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 3%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 7%. Today's estimate: 7%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 17 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 27% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Clean, wash, and sterilize equipment and cooking area, using water hoses, cleaning or sterilizing solutions, or rinses.Done daily by most who do it. | 16% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate auxiliary machines and equipment, such as grinders, canners, and molding presses, to prepare or further process products.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 8% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Observe gauges, dials, and product characteristics, and adjust controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 8% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Pour, dump, or load prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using a hoist.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 21 min8 min to 42 min | Stays with people | |
| Measure or weigh ingredients, using scales or measuring containers.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 5% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Place products on conveyors or carts, and monitor product flow.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Collect and examine product samples during production to test them for quality, color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Record production and test data, such as processing steps, temperature and steam readings, cooking time, batches processed, and test results.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 4% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Remove cooked material or products from equipment.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Activate agitators and paddles to mix or stir ingredients, stopping machines when ingredients are thoroughly mixed.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 3% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Turn valves or start pumps to add ingredients or drain products from equipment and to transfer products for storage, cooling, or further processing.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 2% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Food Batchmakers13% now, 23% by 2028
- Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders8% now, 8% by 2028
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders6% now, 6% by 2028
- Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders6% now, 6% by 2028
- Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders5% now, 5% by 2028
- Bakers8% now, 38% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).