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A man who owned a raw milk creamery behind the deaths of two people has been sentenced to probation.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Therese Wiley Dancks in New York sentenced Johannes Vulto on July 9 to three years probation, a $100,000 fine and 240 hours of community service. Vulto and his company pleaded guilty in March to causing the introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce, a misdemeanor, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York said in a news release.
Vulto’s raw milk cheese was found to be the source of Listeria monocytogenes that sickened eight people, killing two of them in 2016. He could have been sentenced to up to a year in prison. According to a plea agreement, he agreed to pay a $100,000 fine.
According to court papers, Vulto started producing and shipping raw milk cheese from his creamery in Walton in 2012.
The Food and Drug Administration reported that swabs taken from the creamery repeatedly tested positive for listeria species between July 2014 and February 2017, according to Vulto’s plea agreement. Prosecutors said that raw milk cheese is 112 times more likely to cause listeriosis than pasteurized cheese.
In 2018, the federal court shut down the Walton, NY, creamery. Judge Sannes permanently enjoined Vulto Creamery LLC and its owner, Vulto, from any further manufacturing or distribution of food.
Court documents say that in the aftermath of the deadly outbreak, federal officials concluded that Vulto lacked the knowledge and understanding to make corrections and become compliant with legal requirements. Vulto admitted there was much he did not understand, including the significance of environmental sampling, positive results, or the need for a root cause investigation. He offered only “several minor corrective actions.”
“L. mono is a serious health threat that can prove fatal,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Consumers should be able to trust that the food they buy is safe, and we will continue working with the FDA to take action against manufacturers that employ substandard practices.”
At FDA’s request, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed for a permanent injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York on March 19, 2018. The judge signed the order on March 30, and DOJ announced the action on April 2.
“The presence of this dangerous bacteria at a cheese manufacturing facility in Upstate New York is of grave concern,” said Grant C. Jaquith, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York. “We will continue to use all available tools to ensure that our food supply is safe and violations of laws protecting public health are addressed.”
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Vulto Creamery’s soft raw milk cheese was responsible for the only multistate outbreak of listeriosis from such a product in the U.S.
Five of the eight ill people in the outbreak were New York residents. A Florida resident became sick after eating the cheese while visiting New York. The outbreak involved one resident each in Connecticut and Vermont, and those were the two that died.
The recalls began when Vulto Creamery was identified as the source of the listeriosis outbreak. At the FDA’s urging, Vulto first agreed to recall its Ouleout cheese on March 3, 2017. Four days later, on March 7, 2017, Vulto expanded the recall to include all soft and semi-soft cheese. After further discussion with the FDA, all Vulto cheese products were added to the recall on March 11, 2017. It further agreed on March 17, 2017, to destroy all cheese in its inventory or that was returned in the recall, and did so on April 5, 2017.
Court documents shed new light on the outbreak investigation, including the many violations FDA found during its March 2017 inspection of the Vulto Creamery.
Investigators found the Vulto employees did not wash their lower or upper arms before submerging them in whey to stir and break up in-process cheese curds. One of those employees had multiple cuts and abrasions on his arms. Black mold was also found in various places in the cheese factory.
Other violations found by FDA included:
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