Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders

Overview

Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders has a national median salary of $41,330 per year, with +5.9% projected job growth from 2025–2035. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical education needed to enter this occupation.

Description

Operate or tend equipment such as cooling and freezing units, refrigerators, batch freezers, and freezing tunnels, to cool or freeze products, food, blood plasma, and chemicals.

Work Values

• Support
• Independence
• Relationships

Work Styles

Responsibilities

Tasks

• Record temperatures, amounts of materials processed, or test results on report forms.
• Monitor pressure gauges, ammeters, flowmeters, thermometers, or products, and adjust controls to maintain specified conditions, such as feed rate, product consistency, temperature, air pressure, and machine speed.
• Read dials and gauges on panel control boards to ascertain temperatures, alkalinities, and densities of mixtures, and turn valves to obtain specified mixtures.
• Measure or weigh specified amounts of ingredients or materials, and load them into tanks, vats, hoppers, or other equipment.
• Adjust machine or freezer speed and air intake to obtain desired consistency and amount of product.

Work Activities

• Controlling Machines and Processes
• Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials
• Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings
• Getting Information
• Documenting/Recording Information
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
• Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
• Performing General Physical Activities

Detailed Work Activities

• Using either control mechanisms or direct physical activity to operate machines or processes (not including computers or vehicles).
• Inspecting equipment, structures, or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems or defects.
• Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems.
• Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
• Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
• Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.
• Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
• Performing general physical activities includes doing activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling materials.

T-A-S-K

Technology, Abilities, Skills & Knowledge

Education

Education Levels of Current Workers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical education needed to enter this occupation. The chart below shows the highest level of education held by people already working in this field, ages 25 and older. It includes workers who earned more education than the job requires and workers who entered the field under earlier requirements, so the largest bar is not the entry requirement. For example, if someone finished a bachelor's degree and then started working in this field, they are counted under “Bachelor's degree” here, but the job itself typically asks for a high school diploma or equivalent.

Certificates

Certifications applicable to Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders:

Video Resources