{"id":24341,"date":"2015-10-26T16:39:06","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T20:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=24341"},"modified":"2015-10-26T16:39:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T20:39:06","slug":"cheese-hustlers-caught-red-handed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cheese-hustlers-caught-red-handed\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheese Hustlers Caught Red-Handed"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s time to hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husband, because yet another cheese crime has hit our streets and is reeking havoc in our neighborhoods. This time, we\u2019ve moved on from cheese theft<\/a> to cheese fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The culprit: a Slippery Rock company who\u2019s been accused of labeling their imitation cheese as \u201c100% real\u201d Parmesan and Romano. As far as the FDA is concerned, this is some serious business<\/a>. Universal Cheese & Drying, Inc., and International Packing LLC, who labeled and sold Castle Cheese Inc. products, were charged with conspiracy; Michelle Myter—president of Castle Cheese (which is in bankruptcy) and a corporate officer of the other two companies—was charged with \u201cthe misdemeanor of aiding and abetting the introduction of misbranded and adulterated food into interstate commerce.\u201d She will face probation while each company will pay $500,000, adding up to a million total.<\/p>\n

According to Stephen Stallings, Myrter\u2019s lawyer, \u201cMs. Myrter was, unfortunately, the corporate officer at the time of the relevant events, but has not been charged with any felony nor accused of any criminal intent.\u201d Her charge falls under the Park<\/i> criminal liability doctrine\u2014which the FDA follows\u2014stating that company officials can be held liable for their companies wrongdoings whether or not they knew about it.<\/p>\n

The FDA does not mess around.<\/p>\n

So, what exactly did these companies do\u2014or not do\u2014to cost them a million bucks? What is it that makes cheese worthy of being labeled \u2018real\u2019? A lot, actually. The FDA has incredibly strict guidelines for each cheese\u2014as well as for the different categories of cheese products<\/em><\/a>\u2014in their code of regulations<\/a>. These regulations lay out the necessary physical features of a cheese (Parmesan \u201cis characterized by a granular texture and a hard and brittle rind. It grates readily\u201d), the specific requirements of its chemical properties (Romano \u201ccontains not more than 34 percent of moisture, and its solids contain not less than 38 percent of milkfat\u201d), and outlines the cheese-making process (Parmesan \u201cis cured for not less than 10 months\u201d).<\/p>\n

The fraudulent cheeses was partly composed of other cheeses, including Swiss and white cheddar. And, perhaps the worse crime of all, none of them consisted of any milk. Not only were the Parmesan and Romano cheeses not<\/em> Parmesan and Romano cheeses, but they can\u2019t actually be considered cheeses at all, according to FDA standards.<\/p>\n

The companies allowed the FDA to conduct the investigation without issue and have changed their labels. But let this be a lesson to big, fraudulent cheesemakers everywhere: don\u2019t try to cheat your cheese\u2019s way past regulations. The FDA is on their game.<\/p>\n

Feature Photo Credit: “Ingredients for pasta cheese sauce or pizza…”<\/a> by Anna Kurzaeva<\/a> | Shutterstock<\/a><\/em><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The FDA has some pretty serious guidelines for what constitutes a specific cheese, and some pretty serious consequences for those that don’t follow them<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":24351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[818],"class_list":["post-24341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheese-bites"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCheese Hustlers Caught Red-Handed - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cheese-hustlers-caught-red-handed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cheese Hustlers Caught Red-Handed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The FDA has some pretty serious guidelines for what constitutes a specific cheese, and some pretty serious consequences for those that don't follow them\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cheese-hustlers-caught-red-handed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-26T20:39:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/gratedcheese_ftr.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Cummings\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Cummings\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cheese-hustlers-caught-red-handed\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cheese-hustlers-caught-red-handed\/\",\"name\":\"Cheese Hustlers Caught Red-Handed - 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