Fast food preparers
In the ILO's assessment few of the job's tasks can be done by generative AI, or the scores are too spread out to reach gradient 1 — generative AI does not meaningfully take over the core of the work.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
The AI analysis for this occupation is still being prepared — the background process covers a few occupations every day.
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Taking and serving food and beverage orders in eating places that specialize in fast service and carry-out food25
- Ordering and taking delivery of fast food ingredients24
- Maintaining sanitation, health, and safety standards in work areas23
- Verifying that prepared food meets requirements for quality and quantity.21
- Operating large-volume single-process cooking equipment such as grills, deep-fat fryers or griddles17
- Preparing simple or pre-prepared foods and beverages such as sandwiches, hamburgers, pizzas, fish and chips, salads and coffee16
- Washing, cutting, measuring and mixing foods for cooking14
- Cleaning food preparation areas, cooking surfaces and utensils14
- Re-heating pre-prepared food13
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Taking and serving food and beverage orders in eating places that specialize in fast service and carry-out food(25)
- Ordering and taking delivery of fast food ingredients(24)
- Maintaining sanitation, health, and safety standards in work areas(23)
- Verifying that prepared food meets requirements for quality and quantity.(21)
- Operating large-volume single-process cooking equipment such as grills, deep-fat fryers or griddles(17)
- Preparing simple or pre-prepared foods and beverages such as sandwiches, hamburgers, pizzas, fish and chips, salads and coffee(16)
- Washing, cutting, measuring and mixing foods for cooking(14)
- Cleaning food preparation areas, cooking surfaces and utensils(14)
- Re-heating pre-prepared food(13)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 18.)
About 0% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Taking and serving food and beverage orders in eating places that specialize in fast service and carry-out food
- • Ordering and taking delivery of fast food ingredients
- • Re-heating pre-prepared food
- • Cleaning food preparation areas, cooking surfaces and utensils
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Food preparation assistants group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Food preparation assistants |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 2.5% · 847 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 1.8% · 55 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 1.7% · 47 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 1.4% · 73 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 1.4% · 7 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 1.2% · 30 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 1.0% · 44 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 1.0% · 7 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 1.0% · 51 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 1.0% · 46 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 0.9% · 9 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 0.9% · 195 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 0.9% · 46 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 0.9% · 38 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 0.8% · 83 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 0.8% · 345 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 0.8% · 3 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 0.8% · 7 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 0.7% · 2 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 0.7% · 205 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 0.7% · 20 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 0.6% · 29 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 0.5% · 14 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 0.5% · 84 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 0.5% · 7 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 0.4% · 13 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 0.4% · 100 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 0.3% · 5 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 0.2% · 12 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 0.2% · 16 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Elementary occupations). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland3,328
- Denmark2,741
- Iceland2,731
- Norway2,674
- Belgium2,613
- Ireland2,273
- Luxembourg2,269
- Sweden2,059
- Austria1,998
- Finland1,979
- Germany1,973
- Italy1,928
- France1,870
- EU271,835
- Netherlands1,710
- Spain1,658
- Slovenia1,626
- Malta1,498
- Poland1,413
- Greece1,378
- Lithuania1,349
- Cyprus1,331
- Romania1,288
- Croatia1,241
- Czechia1,218
- Estonia1,181
- Slovakia1,165
- Latvia1,119
- Portugal1,102
- Hungary1,057
- Bulgaria844
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Food preparation assistants group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?