Comment by nommm-nommm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nommm-nommm | Hacker News Reader

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-16/the-parmes...

>Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania-based Castle produced mainly imitation cheeses for nearly 30 years. The company, whose factory was adorned with crenelated battlements and curved archways to look like a medieval castle, had $19 million in sales in 2013.

>According to the FDA’s report on Castle, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, “no parmesan cheese was used to manufacture” the Market Pantry brand 100% grated Parmesan Cheese, sold at Target Corp. stores, and Always Save Grated Parmesan Cheese and Best Choice 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, sold by Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., which along with its subsidiaries supplies 3,400 retail stores in 30 states. Instead, there was a mixture of Swiss, mozzarella, white cheddar and cellulose, according to the FDA.

>Castle President Michelle Myrter is scheduled to plead guilty this month to criminal charges. She faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

30 years of $x million annual sales of essentially counterfeit product results in "up to" a year long sentence and $100,000 fine. Madness.

Though I find it ironic that they responded honestly to the FOI request.

You are surprised the FDA responded honestly to a Freedom of Information Act request?

The FOIA request was a request to the FDA from Bloomberg for the FDA's investigation on Castle. It was used by Bloomberg to write the article. The Freedom of Information Act is only to request information from a government agency. To uncover the fraud the FDA physically visited Castle. They were tipped off by a disgruntled former employee. Without the tip off there is a extremely small chance they would have ever been caught.

Actually missed this point about the FDA visiting on the tip-off, hence my surprise.

The FDA can only respond with the information they have, so as it took the FDA actually visiting Castle (on a tip-off no less), they must have been lied to as well.

Surely, a FOI request can't realistically trigger someone jumping in a car to verify data held on file.

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