N.Y. creamery made cheese linked to Conn. person’s death

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 life-threatening 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.