Fishmongers and poultry dressers
Fishmongers and poultry dressers clean, cut and prepare fish and poultry for processing or sale.
- Employees (UK)
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- Median annual pay
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- Exposure score ?
- 0.4/10 Minimal 0.6/10 Minimal strict reading, with tools is 0.6/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.4/10
- Wage exposure
- - -
Higher exposure than 25% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Observe, feel, taste, or otherwise examine products during and after processing to ensure conformance to standards.
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Take product samples during or after processing for laboratory analyses.
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Set temperature and time controls, light ovens, burners, driers, or roasters, and start equipment, such as conveyors, cylinders, blowers, driers, or pumps.
For this role the labels do not surface obvious candidates, so the work would start with the highest-stakes tasks below and find the AI angle in conversation.
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Observe, feel, taste, or otherwise examine products during and after processing to ensure conformance to standards.
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Take product samples during or after processing for laboratory analyses.
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Set temperature and time controls, light ovens, burners, driers, or roasters, and start equipment, such as conveyors, cylinders, blowers, driers, or pumps.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders" (51-3091.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 19 tasks, unaided
Record production data, such as weight and amount of product processed, type of product, and time and temperature of processing.
What still needs a person
18 of 19 tasks
Observe, feel, taste, or otherwise examine products during and after processing to ensure conformance to standards.
Take product samples during or after processing for laboratory analyses.
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.
Test products for moisture content, using moisture meters.
Weigh or measure products, using scale hoppers or scale conveyors.
Clear or dislodge blockages in bins, screens, or other equipment, using poles, brushes, or mallets.
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.
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.
Read work orders to determine quantities and types of products to be baked, dried, or roasted.
Clean equipment with steam, hot water, and hoses.
Smooth out products in bins, pans, trays, or conveyors, using rakes or shovels.
Fill or remove product from trays, carts, hoppers, or equipment, using scoops, peels, or shovels, or by hand.
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.
Tasks via O*NET "Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders" (51-3091.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 19 tasks, with tools
Record production data, such as weight and amount of product processed, type of product, and time and temperature of processing.
What still needs a person
18 of 19 tasks
Observe, feel, taste, or otherwise examine products during and after processing to ensure conformance to standards.
Take product samples during or after processing for laboratory analyses.
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.
Test products for moisture content, using moisture meters.
Weigh or measure products, using scale hoppers or scale conveyors.
Clear or dislodge blockages in bins, screens, or other equipment, using poles, brushes, or mallets.
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.
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.
Read work orders to determine quantities and types of products to be baked, dried, or roasted.
Clean equipment with steam, hot water, and hoses.
Smooth out products in bins, pans, trays, or conveyors, using rakes or shovels.
Fill or remove product from trays, carts, hoppers, or equipment, using scoops, peels, or shovels, or by hand.
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.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Skilled trades occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons