Food Processing Equipment Workers

Food Processing Equipment Workers typically perform the following tasks: • Observe, feel, taste, or otherwise examine products during and after processing to ensure conformance to standards. • Set temperature and time controls, light ovens, burners, driers, or roasters, and start equipment, such as conveyors, cylinders, blowers, driers, or pumps. • Observe temperature, humidity, pressure gauges, and product samples and adjust controls, such as thermostats and valves, to maintain prescribed operating conditions for specific stages. • Observe flow of materials and listen for machine malfunctions, such as jamming or spillage, and notify supervisors if corrective actions fail. • Record production data, such as weight and amount of product processed, type of product, and time and temperature of processing. • Weigh or measure products, using scale hoppers or scale conveyors. • Operate or tend equipment that roasts, bakes, dries, or cures food items such as cocoa and coffee beans, grains, nuts, and bakery products. • Signal coworkers to synchronize flow of materials. • Read work orders to determine quantities and types of products to be baked, dried, or roasted. • Fill or remove product from trays, carts, hoppers, or equipment, using scoops, peels, or shovels, or by hand. • Take product samples during or after processing for laboratory analyses. • Test products for moisture content, using moisture meters. • Clear or dislodge blockages in bins, screens, or other equipment, using poles, brushes, or mallets. • Start conveyors to move roasted grain to cooling pans and agitate grain with rakes as blowers force air through perforated bottoms of pans. • Open valves, gates, or chutes or use shovels to load or remove products from ovens or other equipment. • Clean equipment with steam, hot water, and hoses. • Smooth out products in bins, pans, trays, or conveyors, using rakes or shovels. • Install equipment, such as spray units, cutting blades, or screens, using hand tools. • Push racks or carts to transfer products to storage, cooling stations, or the next stage of processing.