Here are the critical factors I have discovered over a couple of decades of keeping goats and making cheese. All of these are aimed at keeping bacterial contamination as low as possible.
Undesirable bacteria are what make milk products taste rotten.
The goal in cheese-making is to add bacteria which produces good tastes while avoiding the rest. Feed it to your pets, if they will drink it. Otherwise, put it on the compost pile. Note that repeated reference is made to complete drying . The reason is that most bacteria do not survive well on dry surfaces in the absence of organic material.