This is in contrast to being cooked. Like, onions and vegetables and such won’t have undergone processing that would be able to kill any bacteria present.
I know, but I still would use “uncooked” instead of “fresh”, when they obviously aren’t fresh.
Do you call frozen veggies fresh for example?
fresh /frĕsh/
Recently made, produced, or harvested; not stale or spoiled. “fresh bread.”
Not preserved, as by canning, smoking, or freezing. “fresh vegetables.”
I mean, it’s regularly used in the US to refer to food that hasn’t been cooked or canned or whatever. Like, “fresh fruit” refers not to the time since the fruit was picked – which, in an era of storage facilities that are temperature-controlled and control ethylene gas buildup and where variants of plants are selected for long storage lifetime can be quite a while – but whether it’s still in that plain, unpreserved form.
goes looking for a dictionary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fresh
1.b. not altered by processing
fresh vegetables
If someone were to cook or pickle it, then it wouldn’t be in fresh form any more.
Do you call frozen stuff fresh?
No; if it undergoes preservation, like freezing, drying, or canning, then it wouldn’t be.
Might be that usage differs in Europe.