Exec, Companies Set for Sentencing in Imitation Cheese Case

PITTSBURGH (AP) — An executive and two Pennsylvania cheese businesses her family controlled are set for sentencing for selling grated Swiss and mozzarella cheeses as parmesan and romano and adding more wood pulp to the products than the law allows.

Michelle Myrter, of Harmony, pleaded guilty in February, and on behalf of the Slippery Rock companies, International Packing and Universal Cheese and Drying.

The companies, which have ceased operations, have agreed to forfeit $500,000 each. Myrter is expected to receive a probation sentence when she appears before a federal judge in Pittsburgh Tuesday afternoon.

She's pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the introduction of misbranded and adulterated food into interstate commerce.

The cheese labeled and shipped by the companies was made by a third company, Castle Cheese, of which Myrter was vice president.