According to people in this career, the main tasks are...
| Task | Importance |
|---|---|
| Clean, wash, and sterilize equipment and cooking area, using water hoses, cleaning or sterilizing solutions, or rinses. | 93% |
| Read work orders, recipes, or formulas to determine cooking times and temperatures, and ingredient specifications. | 92% |
| Observe gauges, dials, and product characteristics, and adjust controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients. | 91% |
| Measure or weigh ingredients, using scales or measuring containers. | 90% |
| Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing. | 89% |
| Record production and test data, such as processing steps, temperature and steam readings, cooking time, batches processed, and test results. | 89% |
| Set temperature, pressure, and time controls, and start conveyers, machines, or pumps. | 88% |
| Activate agitators and paddles to mix or stir ingredients, stopping machines when ingredients are thoroughly mixed. | 87% |
| Remove cooked material or products from equipment. | 87% |
| Collect and examine product samples during production to test them for quality, color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity. | 86% |
| Operate auxiliary machines and equipment, such as grinders, canners, and molding presses, to prepare or further process products. | 86% |
| Pour, dump, or load prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using a hoist. | 86% |
| Listen for malfunction alarms, and shut down equipment and notify supervisors when necessary. | 85% |
| Notify or signal other workers to operate equipment or when processing is complete. | 84% |
| Place products on conveyors or carts, and monitor product flow. | 84% |
| Turn valves or start pumps to add ingredients or drain products from equipment and to transfer products for storage, cooling, or further processing. | 84% |
| 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. | 84% |
