Food Preparation Assistants

Food preparation assistants support kitchen operations in food service venues by performing routine food handling, assembly, and cleaning tasks under supervision. They work in commercial kitchens, cafés, catering facilities, or institutional food services, preparing ingredients, assembling simple dishes, and maintaining food safety and hygiene standards. This role requires basic manual dexterity and adherence to workplace food safety regulations.

Wash, peel, trim, and chop vegetables and fruits using knives and food preparation equipment. Portion ingredients for cooking or serving according to recipe specifications or supervisor instructions. Assemble simple cold dishes such as salads, sandwiches, and platters following standard recipes. Marinate, season, or prepare proteins such as meat, poultry, or fish prior to cooking. Load and unload commercial dishwashers and manually wash pots, pans, utensils, and serving equipment. Clean and sanitise food preparation surfaces, cutting boards, and equipment according to food safety standards. Store prepared ingredients and finished products in designated refrigerators or storage areas, maintaining FIFO rotation. Monitor and record food temperatures using thermometers to ensure compliance with Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code requirements.

The standard entry pathway requires a Certificate I or compulsory secondary education (ABS skill level 5). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.

The work is physically repetitive and the pay ceiling is low. You'll spend hours on your feet chopping, washing, and cleaning in a hot kitchen with minimal progression unless you train as a chef. Many positions are part-time or casual, so hours and income can be unreliable. It's also medium automation risk as prep equipment improves.

In practice, jobs concentrate in major cities where there's higher demand from hotels, restaurants, and catering companies. Regional areas have fewer positions. Some institutional work (hospitals, schools, aged care) exists nationwide but is typically lower-paid. Remote work isn't an option in this role.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 8512, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

• Active Listeningcore
• Adaptability and Flexibilitycore
• Attention to Detailcore
• Basic Arithmetic and Numerical Accuracycore
• Clean kitchen equipmentcore
• Inventory Trackingcore
• Multitaskingcore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Quality Assurance and Checkingcore
• Team Collaborationcore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Workload Self-Managementcore
• Carry out stock rotation
• Check deliveries on receipt
• Clean surfaces
• Continuous Learning and Upskilling
• Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity
• Goods Receipt Processing
• Incident Reporting
• Problem Solving
• Regulatory and Legislative Awareness
• Stock Counting and Stocktake

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

Last updated: 30 October 2026