{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/food-preparation-workers/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Food Preparation Workers", "soc_code": "35-2021", "category": "Food", "us_employment": 893600, "median_annual_wage": 35320 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 41, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 14, "embodiment": 17, "liability_shield": 2, "trust_premium": 4, "judgment_accountability": 4 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Deboning a chicken, trimming a case of romaine, and hand-portioning steam-table pans are irregular-object manipulations no software has solved, and the 14 rather than 18 reflects that the volume tasks — dicing onions, shredding cheese, portioning sauce — are already offloaded to supplier pre-cut bags and to buffalo choppers and Hobart slicers in-house.", "embodiment": "You are on your feet the full shift moving between a 38°F walk-in and a hot line, lifting 50-lb produce cases, handling wet floors and open knives, with the 17 rather than 20 owing to the kitchen being an indoor, fixed layout rather than a fully unpredictable outdoor site.", "liability_shield": "The only credential in most jurisdictions is a food handler card obtained from a two-hour online course, and when a health inspector writes up a temperature violation or a norovirus case is traced back, the citation lands on the establishment's permit and the certified food protection manager, not on you.", "trust_premium": "Prep work happens behind the wall — the guest never learns who cut the fruit or built the sandwich, and the 4 instead of 0 credits the working relationship with the chef or kitchen manager who knows your speed and yield and would rather not retrain someone.", "judgment_accountability": "The day runs off a prep list, standardized recipe cards, spec'd portion scoops, and HACCP hold temperatures with logged checks; the discretion left is calling a case of tomatoes bad or flexing prep quantities against an unexpectedly slow lunch." }, "rationale": "Washing, peeling, slicing, portioning, and assembling salads and sandwiches are manual tasks that language AI cannot touch — this job is protected by hands, not by knowledge work. The real pressure comes from purpose-built kitchen automation (automated fry stations, robotic wok and bowl lines, pre-cut and pre-portioned supplier products) plus menu simplification, which shrinks headcount per kitchen rather than replacing the worker's skill. No license, no signature, minimal customer relationship, and little discretion means there is no regulatory or trust moat to slow that squeeze.", "outlook": "Employment holds up in independent and scratch-cooking kitchens but thins noticeably in chains as pre-cut supply chains and station robotics spread; the workers who survive are the ones handling irregular product and food-safety accountability.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "If the menu mix shifts further toward whole-ingredient, variable-input prep (whole fish butchery, irregular produce, allergen-segregated prep lines) that defeats fixed-geometry robotic cells, the unpredictable-environment share of the day rises. Watch for chains reversing pre-cut supplier reliance on cost/freshness grounds, as some grocery-adjacent kitchens have done.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "If FDA Food Code adoption in more states moves beyond one Person-in-Charge toward requiring a certified food protection manager physically present per prep shift (already law in NYC, Illinois, and Texas manager-certification rules), a named certified human becomes a staffing floor rather than a one-per-store box-tick. Allergen-specific certification mandates (post-Natasha's-Law-style bills introduced in several US states) would compound this.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Task-mix shift: if automated lines take routine slicing and portioning, the remaining human work concentrates on receiving inspection, spoilage and temperature-abuse calls, cross-contact decisions, and HACCP corrective actions — consequential calls under ambiguity that carry the store's health-inspection score. This tier genuinely exists today but is thinly recognized in the role.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Same two-tier shift: once fry stations, wok lines, and bowl assembly are automated, what remains is exception handling, machine cleaning and sanitation validation, and non-standard order remediation — none of which current robotic cells do. Rises only in occupations that survive the headcount cut, not for the cut positions.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 2 } ], "ceiling_note": "There is no realistic route to a meaningful trust premium: buyers of prepped salad and sandwich components do not know or pay for who cut them, and back-of-house work is invisible at the point of sale. Note also that every lever above raises per-worker resistance while the automation and menu-simplification squeeze reduces the number of workers — the occupation's score can rise while employment falls." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 832690, "wage": 22730 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 814600, "wage": 23730 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 863740, "wage": 24800 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 793590, "wage": 26070 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 783350, "wage": 28780 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 904330, "wage": 29790 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 879610, "wage": 32420 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 888770, "wage": 34220 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 893600, "wage": 35320 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": 7.3, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "cooks-restaurant", "title": "Cooks, Restaurant", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 57, "median_wage": 37390, "overlap": 90, "skills_to_close": [ "Active Learning", "Equipment Selection", "Management of Financial Resources", "Management of Material Resources" ] }, { "slug": "maids-and-housekeeping-cleaners", "title": "Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 54, "median_wage": 35510, "overlap": 88, "skills_to_close": [] }, { "slug": "shoe-and-leather-workers-and-repairers", "title": "Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 57, "median_wage": 37800, "overlap": 81, "skills_to_close": [ "Equipment Selection", "Operations Monitoring", "Operations Analysis", "Equipment Maintenance" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }