Well having just read this, I thought that BernardSmiths question had merit.
Yet at the same time don't have anything other than anecdotal guidance/suggestions......
I too, understood at the fermentation stage, the pH sorts out most problems like this (excluding other yeasts), then after the brew passes about 10% ABV, its the alcohol content that becomes the saviour......
I've certainly never heard of any alcoholic drinks be problematic other than beers. And even then the issues are that the beer makers have to be anal about kit and material hygiene as there are many more microbes around that are injurious to beers at many stages of the making.......
As with many parts of western society, we can be too obsessed. Dairy products are much more sensitive than booze. Even the few health scares they've experienced in France, I understand that theyve all been connected to places that use pasteurised milk, so places like the US and UK (too a lesser extent) aren't as perfect as we like to think.
Hygiene standards in the meat world border on the excessive, yet it does seem most likely that NvCJD is a development caused, most likely, from industrial feed manufacturers. Or that when there's an outbreak of Ecoli 0156 in minced/ground products there's only the one probable source (baring in mind that the US eats a higher proportion than Europe of those) and that is that there's sh1t in the meat somehow and thats generally via abattoir or process/packing plant related....
I for one, am not prepared to live in a sterile bubble. I'm happy to learn of potential hazards and then make my own mind up.
I'm just off to open another pack of epoises cheese to dip me bread sticks in......but if you don't like the smell ? Tough..... (not the cheese though)