The United States Department of Justice announced on Monday that a former New York Cheese Producer who had a manufacturing facility in Walton has been sentenced for selling raw milk cheese products linked to a Listeria outbreak.

Johannes Vulto and the company Vulto founded and owned (Vulto Creamery LLC) were each sentenced in federal court in Syracuse after pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of causing the introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce thahat linked to an outbreak of Listeriosis back in 2016-17.

Vulto was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay a fine of 100,000, and to perform 240 hours of community service. Vulto Creamery LLC which no longer operates was sentenced to one year of probation. 

Over the course of three years in between December 2014 and March 2017, the Vulto Creamery and Vulto both admitted they caused the shipment in interstate commerce of adulterated cheese. Environmental swabs were taken at the creamery between July 2014 and February 2017 and repeatedly tested positive for Listeria species. These include both harmless species and monocytogenes which can cause listerosis in humans.

Listerosis is a severe and invasive illness that be life-threatening in some cases. 

In March of 2017 Vulto shut down the creamery and issued a full recall.