A former producer of raw milk cheese and the business he owned and ran in New York entered a guilty plea to charges pertaining to cheese that was connected to a listeriosis outbreak that occurred between 2016 and 2017.
Listeriosis is a disease brought on by the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes.
According to the Department of Justice, Johannes Vulto and Vulto Creamery LLC entered a guilty plea to one misdemeanor count of causing food to be introduced into interstate commerce.
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At the Vulto Creamery manufacturing facility in Walton, New York, Vulto was in charge of all operations, including those that involved environmental monitoring and sanitation.
Vulto and Vulto Creamery entered a guilty plea, acknowledging that they were responsible for the interstate commerce of adulterated cheese between December 2014 and March 2017.
According to the plea agreement, environmental swabs taken at the Vulto Creamery facility between approximately July 2014 and February 2017 repeatedly tested positive for Listeria species. The Listeria family includes both harmless species and L. monocytogenes, which can cause listeriosis in humans.
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In March 2017, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) linked Vulto Creamery’s cheese to an outbreak of listeriosis, Vulto shut down the Vulto Creamery facility and issued a partial recall that was expanded to a full recall within weeks. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the listeriosis outbreak resulted in eight hospitalizations and two deaths.
“It is crucial that American consumers be able to trust that the foods they buy are safe to eat,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The department will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to hold responsible food manufacturers that sell dangerously contaminated products.”
“This investigation and prosecution holds accountable the defendant and his business who through unsafe practices caused illness and death to consumers in an entirely preventable tragedy,” said U.S. Attorney Carla B. Freedman for the Northern District of New York. “The law enforcement and regulatory partners involved in this case will continue to work together to bring to justice those who endanger the public through unsafe and unsanitary products and facilities.”
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“U.S. consumers rely on the FDA to ensure that their food is safe and wholesome,” said Special Agent in Charge Fernando McMillan of FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations New York Field Office. “When companies and individuals put themselves above the law by producing food that endangers and harms the public, as occurred in this case, we will see that they are brought to justice.”
Listeriosis is a severe, invasive illness that can be life-threatening in some cases.
People who have the greatest risk of experiencing listeriosis due to consumption of foods contaminated with L. monocytogenes are pregnant women and their newborns, the elderly and persons with weakened immune systems.
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