I’ve been to the fortune cookie factory in San Francisco a few times. They make most of the fortune cookies for the West coast chinese restaurants. It’s a tiny building in Ross Alley in Chinatown. There are two machines that operate 24/7 and one woman works each machine. The cookies come out as flat circular disks. The woman takes the circle, puts the fortune inside, and wraps it around a stick to make the fortune cookie shape (fold a circle in half and then with the flat side facing you, bring the two ends together till they touch – that’s how they make the shape). They work really fast and it only takes a second per cookie. So yes, they do it by hand, and don’t worry- they wear gloves. If you’re ever in SF, go to Ross alley and you can stop by and watch them work and they will give you fortune cookies fresh from the oven, still hot. It’s just one small room and there’s no “tour” you can just watch them work (and there is no admission fee). The fresh hot fortune cookies are much better than the stale ones you get in the restaurant. It looked like a tedious job but it was definitely not child labor, and since anyone can stop in and see the working conditions it probably makes it a lot safer for the workers.