Always marinate foods in the refrigerator, never by leaving them on the kitchen counter, and use a nonmetal container.
Use a long-handled brush for adding sauces or marinades to food before or during grilling. The same brush used for brushing marinades on raw meat should not be used on cooked meat. This prevents transferring any bacteria from the uncooked meat to the cooked meat. Wash the brush in hot soapy water and dry thoroughly.
If a marinade in which raw meat was placed is to be used as a sauce after the meat is cooked, be sure to bring the marinade to boiling and then boil 1 minute before serving.
Always served grilled meat on a clean platter. Never serve cooked meats on the same unwashed platter on which raw meat was carried to the grill. For example, do not carry raw hamburgers to the grill on a platter and then serve the cooked hamburgers on the same unwashed platter. Dangerous bacteria can be transferred to the cooked meat from the raw meat juices.
Perishable food should be consumed within 2 hours; 1 hour if the outside temperature is over 90°.
In case of a flare-up, raise the grill grid and spread the coals to lower the temperature. Remove food from the grill grid before spraying with water, or clumps of ash might fly onto the food.
Open aluminum foil food packets carefully and facing away from you to let out the steam. Steam burns can be painful!
From "Betty Crocker's Best of Healthy & Hearty Cooking." Text Copyright 1998 General Mills, Inc. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.