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Taking ingredients and turning them into the food and drink products that people and companies want to buy, whether it is for further preparation in a factory or immediate consumption at home, in a bar, cafe or restaurant.
Working in food and drink is not just about working on a production line; there are many other interesting and varied jobs.
The UK food and drink manufacturing industry has an annual turnover of £77.4 billion and employs over 500,000 people.
The sector includes bakery, dairy, meat and poultry and sea fish.
The Bakery and Meats sectors of the industry are the largest by number of employees; 24% of the workforce are employed in the Bakery sector and 21% in the Meat sector.
The largest proportion of the Food & Drink workforce is employed in process, plant and machine operative roles (36%).
However there are skills shortages across the industry which mean there is a need to recruit:
Forecasts indicate that there will be large demands for new recruits to the sector to replace those leaving the industry (for example through retirement).
Approximately 120,000 new recruits will be required in the industry between 2004-2014 to meet employer demands.
More than 50% of the current workforce will retire from the industry in the next 20 years. These people have a lot of experience and are very valuable to their employer. Employers will need to recruit new, highly skilled workers to replace those that leave.
67% of the Food & Drink Sector workforce is male.
33% of the workforce is female.
28,500 people are employed in the Food & Drink sector across the Humber.
Grimsby is an important centre for food manufacturing and processing and is known as 'Europe's Food Town'.
18,000 full-time staff work in the sea fish industry nationally and 28% of these jobs are in the Humber area with a 5% increase in employment since 2000.
Salary info: £10,000
Salary info: £12,000
Salary info: £10,000
Salary info: £18,500
Food Processing Operative
