Former raw milk cheese maker pleads guilty to charges in connection with fatal listeria outbreak

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A former producer of raw milk cheese has pleaded guilty to charges related to a deadly outbreak of listeria. Federal prosecutors say Johannes Vulto and his New York-based Vulto Creamery each pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of causing the introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce in federal court in Syracuse. Prosecutors say environmental swabs taken at the Vulto Creamery facility in Walton repeatedly tested positive for listeria bacteria. Vulto shut down the creamery and issued a full recall after federal authorities in 2017 linked the creamery’s cheese to an outbreak of listeriosis that caused eight hospitalizations and two deaths.