Final answer:
To prevent cross-contamination, raw foods must be stored separately from cooked foods in a refrigerator. Food safety practices, such as proper cleaning and safe temperature storage, are crucial to avoiding the spread of foodborne diseases.
Step-by-step explanation:
In order to prevent cross-contamination, raw foods in a refrigerator must be stored separately from cooked foods. Cross-contamination occurs when microbes are transferred from one food to another, and it is a major way through which foods become contaminated. Raw foods such as eggs, poultry, and meat often contain bacteria like Salmonella and thus should never come into contact with ready-to-eat foods to prevent the spread of these bacteria.
Food safety practices such as storing raw and cooked foods separately are necessary to ensure that foods do not become a source of foodborne diseases. Foods should be kept at safe temperatures to inhibit bacterial growth, using a refrigerator for cold storage set at or below 4 degrees C (40 degrees F), and ensuring that proper cleaning is done between preparing different types of food.
To further protect against contamination, all surfaces used for food preparation, such as cutting boards and countertops, need to be cleaned thoroughly after use with raw foods and before preparing other foods. Additionally, all fruits and vegetables should be rinsed before consumption, even if their outer skin or rind is not to be eaten.