Grilling is a favorite pastime for many, but cooking outdoors poses challenges for handling food safely.

These six simple steps can help protect you, your family and hungry guests from a nasty bout of food poisoning the next time you fire up the grill:

1.Start with a clean grill. Always remove charred food from the grill before cooking.

This reduces the risk that fresh foods will be exposed to bacteria.

2.Refrigerate. Keep meat, poultry and fish in the fridge until you're ready to grill. Then only take out what you'll cook right away.

3.Separate. Don't use the same platter, cutting board or utensils for raw and cooked foods. For example, use one plate for bringing raw meat, poultry or fish to the grill and a different one for taking cooked food off the grill. That way bacteria in raw food and its juices can't contaminate cooked food.

4.Use a food thermometer. That ensures that you're cooking meat, poultry and fish to a high enough temperature to kill bacteria. Cook whole cuts of red meat, like beef and lamb, to 145 degrees, and then let it rest for three minutes before serving. Also cook:

• Fish to 145 degrees.

• Hamburgers and other ground beef to 160 degrees.

• Poultry to 165 degrees.

5.Mind your marinade. Marinades are a good way to flavor raw meats, fish and poultry. It maybe tempting to use any leftover marinade on the food after it has been cooked. But that's risky—the marinade may harbor harmful bacteria. If you don't want leftover marinade to go to waste, boil it before you reuse it.