The executive of a company that doctored its Parmesan cheese with substitutes such as wood pulp has been sentenced to probation and a fine, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Michelle Myrter, president of Castle Cheese Inc. in Slippery Rock, Pa., has been sentenced to three years probation, a $5,000 fine and 200 hours of community service, U.S. Attorney David Hickton said yesterday. Myrter pleaded guilty to federal misdemeanor charges involving food adulteration. Prosecutors said her company and two others controlled by her family made and distributed hundreds of thousands of pounds of fake cheese, passing it off as 100 percent Parmesan to U.S. stores between 2010 and 2013. Agents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Internal Revenue Service raided company facilities in January 2013 after getting a tip about the fake cheese from a former employee. Afterward, the company used real ingredients, causing profits to plunge, according to court documents. Castle Cheese is now in bankruptcy proceedings.
