CHICAGO, April 19 (UPI) -- Four people were indicted in Chicago on charges of conspiring to import and sell more than 110,000 pounds of tainted cheese in 2007.
A federal grand jury returned a six-count indictment Wednesday that alleges the group defied orders from the Food and Drug Administration that the imported food, what the U.S. Attorney's Office termed "adulterated Mexican Cheese," be held for inspection.
The dried cheese was later found to be contaminated with salmonella, E. coli and other illness-causing bacteria, a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office noted, although Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, pointed out the indictment did not allege any incidences of illness or other public health consequences.
The indictment named owners and executives of a Mexican food importer and a Wisconsin-based cheese processing plant, and charged the four with conspiring to illegally distribute the cheese, scrape mold from cheese returned by dissatisfied customers to resell it and lying to an FDA inspector by sending a false document to the agency.
