Feds: NY creamery linked to CT death was unclean
A New York state creamery that made cheese linked to the deaths of Connecticut and Vermont residents was rife with unsanitary conditions, according to federal documents.
Johannes Vulto, former owner of the defunct Vulto Creamery, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Syracuse to causing the introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce. The plea stemmed from a listeria outbreak in 2016-17 traced to raw milk cheeses made at the Walton, N.Y.-based creamery. Vulto, 64, is to be sentenced on July 9 and faces up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. A guilty plea also was entered by the company, carrying a maximum fine of $500,000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Connecticut victim was not identified in the court documents. The Vermont victim was identified in court documents as Richard Friedman, 73, of Putney.
Vulto shut down the creamery and issued a full recall in 2017 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration linked the creamery’s cheese to an outbreak of listeriosis that resulted in eight hospitalizations and two deaths. The cheeses were sold in Connecticut at a Whole Foods store in Fairfield, according to the FDA.
Listeriosis is a lifethreatening bacterial illness caused by eating food contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. Pregnant women, newborns, elderly people and others with weakened immune systems are among the most at risk of severe illness.
Federal and New York state inspections of the Walton facility in February and March 2017, according to federal documents, found the following unsanitary conditions:
• Employees did not wash their lower or upper arms before submerging them in whey to stir and break up cheese curds. One worker employed in this work had multiple cuts and abrasions on his arms.
• A heavy buildup of black mold in multiple locations in the facility, including the cement walls in the manufacturing room and washroom. Concrete floors in the manufacturing and cheese aging rooms were cracked and pitted, with moisture accumulated in the cracks and pits.
• A long piece of sticky fly tape, “heavily populated with dead insects,” hung directly over uncovered cheeses in the aging room.
• A fan in the manufacturing room used to dry the floor had “a very heavy buildup of unknown debris” on its spinning arms and face.
• Wooden boards used for aging cheeses were not designed to be appropriately cleaned and sanitized, and the uneven surfaces allowed collection of moisture and debris, “a potential harborage area for filth and microorganisms.”
• Vulto failed to perform microbial testing where necessary to identify sanitation failures and possible food contamination and failed to use a procedure for equipment and utensil cleaning and sanitizing ... “in that Defendants repeatedly found Listeria throughout the facility, even after re-cleaning and re-sanitizing.”
In discussions with FDA officials following the outbreak, Johannes Vulto acknowledged he did not understand the significance of testing results that showed listeria and did not understand that the results indicated his cleaning and sanitizing treatments were inadequate in controlling contamination, according to federal documents.
An estimated 1,600 people get listeriosis each year, and about 260 die, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Connecticut was among states affected by a recent nationwide outbreak linked to California-based Rizo-Lopez Foods, Inc. Some of the company’s products were sold in Connecticut, but the FDA listed no illnesses here. Often, however, people recover without reporting illness, federal officials say.
Symptoms of listeriosis include fever, headache, loss of balance and seizures. Friedman, the Vermont man whose death was linked to Vulto cheese, fell ill in October 2016 and was in several hospitals in the state until he had a massive stroke on Oct. 31 and died, according to a lawsuit his wife, Veronica Friedman, filed against Vulto. The case was reportedly settled confidentially.