Diarrhoeic diseases at world scale are the 5th most important cause of death, mainly due to lack of sanitation and unsafe drinking water. They can also originate from food, generating most of food-borne outbreaks. Eggs and egg products are the most common foodstuff category implied in food-borne outbreaks in EU, while cheese plays a limited role (2.3 % of strong evidence outbreaks in 2010) mainly due to staphylococcal toxins. Because of their physico-chemical traits, smear cheeses can offer favorable conditions to the development of Listeria monocytogenes. The bacterium is most often detected in soft and semi-soft cheeses made from pasteurised vs raw milk. Natural combination of various microorganisms and their metabolites in milk and cheese could act as multiple hurdles. Antilisterial activity is exhibited by some actinomycetes isolated from smear cheese but is less effective than that of microbial consortia. Microbial interactions, in which actinomycetes may play an important role, could be a key point in explaining antilisterial activity, but mechanisms are not fully understood. Quality of smear cheese can be affected by blowing defects due to gas-producing bacteria like coliform and butyric acid bacteria. Pigmented strains of Gram negative bacteria, e.g. Pseudomonas fluorescens are associated with fluorescent spots and off-flavours. How microbial balance affects spoilage activity has to be investigated.