> I wouldn't want to make hard cheeses at home, the food poisoning risk is way too high for me. Why do you say that? Hard cheese is much safer than soft cheese

> I wouldn't want to make hard cheeses at home, the food poisoning risk is way too high for me. Why do you say that? Hard cheese is much safer than soft cheese. Most instances of food poisoining are caused by fresh, soft cheese. Hard cheese is normally aged for a few months after which most pathogens (and most microbes in general) die off for lack of nutrients and moisture. Actually that's the mechanism by which cheese develops flavor as it ages: microorganisms in cheese die off and their ruptured cells release enzymes that interact with the proteins and fats in cheese to create new flavors. In general, it's a very good idea to be careful when making cheese at home. Your first line of defense against food poisoning from homemade cheese is pasteurisation. Food poisoning risk from pasteurised milk products is going to be very low unless you're really careless. Your other first line of defense is to have scrupulus sanitation practices. Sanitise every surface that will come into contact with cheese, or with anything that will come into contact with cheese. Boil all implements that can be boiled for at least 15' (that won't sterilise them quite, but it's close). Wash thoroughly everything you can't boil. Use separate utensils and receptacles for cheesemaking and separate ones for cooking to avoid cross-contamination. Use brushes rather than sponges for washing utensils and also keep them separate to avoid cross-contamination. Use clean paper towels, or sterilise your cloth towels before each cheesemaking session. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water, duh, or use one-use gloves (preferrably sterilised) chaning them every time you handle cheese. That's my regime anyway! I'm also curious about your comment that making mozzarella consumes too much milk. Normally you should get about 10-15% yield with cow's milk mozzarella, depending on how you make it. Are you making it by directly adding acid to milk (like citric acid or vinegar etc) or are you doing it traditional style? I think the direct-acid method can have lower yields.