Why is it important to keep raw and cooked or ready-to-eat foods separate?
To prevent cross contamination (i.e. the contamination of cooked/ready-to-eat foods by bacteria from raw foods). Some pathogenic (harmful) bacteria transmitted in this may cause serious foodborne illness, even if they are present in the food only in small quantities (e.g. E. coli O157). Food poisoning may also result from eating food where the initial contaminating bacteria have been allowed to multiply to high numbers due to time/temperature abuse involving inadequate/unrefrigerated storage.
