Current estimates suggest that dairy accounts for nearly 20% of all food loss at food service, retail, and the home. A myriad of factors plays into dairy loss, but microbial spoilage is a significant one. The contamination by pathogenic bacteria of dairy products, leading to large food recalls and subsequent food destruction, is another important though less predictable contributor to food loss. The concurrent consumer push for sustainability and clean ingredient labels is a challenge for dairy producers and calls for the application of new tools. These tools are particularly important for fresh cheeses where high moisture content makes these products more susceptible to microbial contaminants. Protective cultures, i.e., bacterial strains with ability to inhibit the outgrowth of undesirable microorganisms, embody tools with the potential to satisfy consumer and producer demands. Protective cultures are currently applied to some food products, but questions remain as to their efficacy. Our lab has begun to explore some of these questions in regards to fresh cheeses. In one study, we evaluated whether commercial protective cultures, currently utilized to control Listeria monocytogenes in fermented meats, would be effective in controlling L. monocytogenes in the high-risk cheese queso fresco. In our second study, we evaluated the breadth of inhibition of a set of protective cultures against an array of dairy relevant yeast and molds in both queso fresco and cottage cheese. Our results suggest that protective cultures can be effective tools for the inhibition of undesirable microorganisms. However, all protective cultures are not equal, with each having unique patterns of inhibition. Furthermore, the efficacy of a single protective culture is not necessarily consistent across product types. The takeaway for producers is that yes, protective cultures can be valuable clean label tools for microbial control, but they must be chosen with an understanding of the contaminants that are likely to occur in your facility, and if multiple product types are made, each may require a specific protective culture. Preliminary evaluation is a key step in effectively leveraging these microbial tools to protect dairy products.