Butcher Jobs | Bakery Jobs | Food Processing Jobs
Food Processing Jobs - What is the Job of a Baker? What does a Animal Slaughterer Job Involve?
Food processing jobs are responsible for turning raw food products into finished goods that can then be sold by grocery stores, restaurants, and other end user food vendors. Food processors prepare the food products that are found in almost every household, and some workers process meat while others are bakers.
Bakery jobs are responsible for mixing ingredients together and cooking them in order to produce breads, pastas, pastries, and other grain based products. Baking jobs will commonly involve work in grocery stores and bakery shops in order to produce breads and sweets that are consumed by the public. Bakers can create a number of exotic products such as handcrafted artisan bread, cheese bread, bread with fruits and nuts, or desserts such as cakes, pies, and pastries.
In the manufacturing industry, a baking job will use mixing machines, ovens, and other equipment in order to produce large batches of goods, which can then be sent to supermarkets in grocery stores either raw or finished.
Food processing jobs can involve turning carcasses into packaged or cased meats, which are then vended to wholesalers or retailers to be packaged or sold outright. Butchers and meat cutters will work primarily in grocery stores cutting apart larger sections of meat and packaging them in order to be sold to the public.
In animal slaughtering plants, meat slaughterers kill cattle such as pigs, cows, and sheep, and turn their carcasses into larger cuts of meat such as rounds, loins, or tenders. In some meat processing plants, a meat packager will prepare the meat even further to the extent where a butcher is not needed.
Meatpacker jobs may also create sausages, lunch meats, hamburger, and other packaged meat products. Slaughterers may also work on assembly lines using knives, saws, and cleavers in order to remove the entrails and cut up larger chunks of meat.
Poultry processors may also be known as poultry cutters or poultry trimmers, who are responsible for carving up chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other types of poultry. The poultry industry is becoming increasingly automated, but many poultry jobs are still done manually.
Packaged meat foods are also created at processing plants, and involve filleting various cuts of meat into smaller portions, and then applying seasonings. Case ready meats are gaining in popularity as premade meat products are easy to prepare.
Manufacturing industries hire fish cutters, who are responsible for cleaning out the entrails of fish and removing the head, scales, and other undesirable portions. Butcher jobs are responsible for the later stages of meat packaging. Meat cutters will often work for grocery stores cutting larger sections of meat into manageable packaged sizes. Meat cutter jobs will usually involve weighing, wrapping, and labeling various packages of meat, and arranging them for display in a grocery cooling case.
Food batch makers will operate equipment that blends various ingredients together in order to complete a recipe, while food cooking machine tenders will operate deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, and boilers in order to processed meat products. Tobacco roasters and baking machine operators are responsible for drying the moisture out of food in order to prepare it for canning.
Working Conditions for Meat Packer Jobs - How is the Working Environment for Meat Processing Jobs?
The working environment for baking jobs are usually coffee shops, bakeries, cafeterias, restaurants, and hotels, and baking careers are usually high stress. Bakery kitchens are usually loud and noisy, and bakers will often work as a team in order to mass produce various bakery products.
Bakery jobs may involve working early mornings in order to prepare the days food, and bakers may work evenings and weekends in order to accommodate retail customers.
In animal slaughtering plants, butchers and meat cutters will have to work in cramped spaces in cutting rooms with power equipment. Often, butcher job working conditions are refrigerated in order to prevent spoilage of meat, and the cutting itself can create damn floors, which will increase the risk of a slip or fall.
Meat cutting jobs are very tedious and boring, and the repetition can quickly wear on ones patience. Injuries that can result from meat cutting or butter jobs include cuts from knives or power tools, in addition to repetitive motion injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome.
Food machinery operators often work in warm and noisy locations, but otherwise their food processing work is fairly safe and easy.
Most meat preparation and bakery jobs involve a 40 hour workweek, which can include evenings, early mornings, and night shifts.
Baker Education - How to Become a Professional Baker - How to Receive Your Food Processing Training
Baker training usually starts out as an apprentice to a more experienced baker, learning the ropes on how to bake various products and how to ice and decorate cakes. Apprenticed bakers may receive certification, and the skills that are required as a baker include stringent government health regulations, chemistry, nutrition, and business concepts. Baking jobs also include knowledge on how to maintain machinery.
Most butchers and meat cutters will acquire their skills on the job, and the butcher training period can last from 1 to 2 years. Butcher trainees will often start out in less difficult jobs such as making simple cuts of meat, and butchers will eventually learn how to cut more sophisticated pieces over time.
Butcher training involves learning how to tie roasts, prepare sausages, and how to perform inventoried and record keeping. Safety concerns with regards to meat borne pathogens are also taught in a butcher program.
Food machine operators typically have training that lasts up to a year, depending on the sophistication of the food mixing machines that they are operating.
Meat Packer Training Requirements - How to Become a Food Processor
Skills that a baker should have include an ability to communicate and a willingness to follow instructions. Meat cutters and fish trimmers must have good dexterity in order to prevent injury as well as hand eye coordination. Some pieces of meat are heavy and require great physical strength to lift. Health certification may be necessary in order to become employed as a poultry cutter or meat trimmer.
The Retail Bakers of America offers baking certification in sanitation, training, retail sales, and bakery management. The requirements to receive baker certification include experience and education, in addition to completing an exam. A certified master baker must have the certified baker designation and has to have completed sanitation courses approved by a culinary institute.
Food processing workers or bakers may advance by becoming supervisors and eventually bakers may decide to open up their own business.
Meat Processing Employment - What is a Food Processor Job?
Over the next decade, baking jobs and food processing jobs should grow by about 8%. Meat imports should have a negative effect on butcher and meat cutter employment, in addition to advances in meat cutting technology.
Meat and poultry cutters will experience 11% growth in their basic positions, while animal slaughters and meatpackers should grow by about 13%.
Butchering jobs should only grow by about 2%, as increased meatpacking automation cuts out the butcher middleman and sends packaged meats straight to the grocery store.
Baking jobs should increase by about 10%, due to an increased demand for bakery goods such as cookies, cinnamon rolls, and muffins, in addition to specialty bread and bagel shops such as Paneras.
Tobacco roasters and roasting machine operators should expect employment growth of about 11%, and food cooking machine operator jobs will experience employment decline of 5% as automated machinery such as boilers and deep fryers require less human input.
Poultry Trimmer Pay Scale - How Much Do Food Processors Earn?
In 2006, baker jobs had median annual salaries of $22,030, with those working in bakery manufacturing earning the highest rate of pay at $22,580, and those bakers working in restaurants earning less at $20,770.
Meat cutter and butcher jobs earned a median salary of $26,930 over the same time period, with those working in grocery stores making $27,830 a year, and those working in animal processing jobs earning the least a $23,080 a year.
Food batch makers earned median salaries of $23,100, with those working in dairy manufacturing earning the most at $28,570, and those working in bakery manufacturing earning only $21,720.
In 2006, meatpackers and animal slaughterer jobs paid wages of $21,690 a year, while cooking machine operators earned $21,280 in the same year. Food bakers and tobacco machine operators earned $23,510.
Most food processing workers receive benefits which include pension plans, since most are union members or are employed by grocers. Poultry cutters rarely receive benefits, and a little over a fifth of all food processing jobs are unionized. The most common union that represents food processing workers is the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.