Which specific food category is recommended for placement on the bottom shelf in a properly arranged refrigerator?

Foods that must be cooked to the highest temperature, such as all poultry.

In professional and well-organized home refrigeration units, the arrangement of stored items is a deliberate strategy employed to prevent cross-contamination, where pathogens from raw foods drip onto items that will not receive further cooking or minimal heating. To mitigate this risk, shelves are organized based on the required internal cooking temperature of the food items. The rule dictates stacking from the lowest required cooking temperature (top shelf) down to the highest required cooking temperature (bottom shelf). Therefore, the absolute bottom shelf must be reserved for foods that require the highest cooking standard to ensure safety, specifically foods cooked to $165^ ext{circ} ext{F}$, which explicitly includes all poultry items.