New York’s Vulto Creamery ordered to halt production operations

The US Court for the Northern District of New York has ordered raw milk cheese company Vulto Creamery to stop the production of its ready-to-eat aged soft, semi-soft and hard cheeses until it complies with food safety regulations.

The federal court has entered a consent decree of permanent injunction against Vulto after it was found that the products produced by the company were linked to a multi-state outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes (L. mono), which killed two people and left eight others suffering from varying degrees of sickness.

L.mono is a pathogenic bacterium that can cause listeriosis, a rare but potentially life-threatening illness.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Regulatory Affairs associate commissioner Melinda K Plaisier said: “We have an obligation to make sure that foods are safe for people to consume.

“The FDA moved quickly after an L. mono outbreak to get the company to recall and destroy all its cheese products and cease production to prevent any more tainted food from harming consumers.

“FDA investigators also found unsanitary conditions at Vulto’s facility and this consent decree prevents the company and its owner from resuming operations until they can demonstrate to the FDA that their products are safe.”

Under the court directives, Vulto cannot prepare, process, manufacture, pack or hold FDA-regulated food products until the company can ensure that L. mono is completely eliminated from its facility, as well as from the food products.

The food products are said to have been prepared, packed and held in unsanitary conditions, creating the environment for food to potentially become contaminated and harmful for human consumption.

In order to resume its operations, the consent decree stated that the company needs to hire an independent laboratory to collect and analyse environmental and finished samples to identify any presence of L. mono, as well as appoint an independent expert and develop a programme to control the pathogenic bacterium.

The complaint was filed by the US Department of Justice on behalf of the FDA.