PITTSBURGH — A woman whose family controls a Western Pennsylvania cheese empire was expected to plead guilty — along with two of her companies — to charges they misbranded and mislabeled grated cheese that contained too little cheese and too much cellulose made from wood pulp.

Michelle Myrter was scheduled to plead guilty this morning before a federal judge in Pittsburgh. It’s also expected she’ll plead guilty on behalf of International Packing and Universal Cheese and Drying, two Scott Township, Lawrence County businesses that packaged and allegedly mislabeled the cheese made by family-owned Castle Cheese.

Those businesses are on Route 19, several miles northwest of Slippery Rock.

Myrter is vice president of Castle and an officer in the others.

A defense attorney for the company declined comment in advance of the pleas.

Myrter faces up to a year in prison and a $500,000 fine.

According to charges filed Oct. 20 in federal court, International Packing and Universal Cheese were formed specifically to package, dry and sell cheese made by Castle Cheese. Castle began manufacturing imitation cheese products before the formation of International Packing and Universal, the suit said.

The suit said that about January 2010 International Packing and Universal began packaging the imitation Romano and Parmesan with labels that said they were “real” cheeses, and the suit said the companies were aware that the products did not meet the FDA standards for cheese.

The suit also claimed that the companies charged a higher price for these products, while the production costs were lower than they would be for making real cheese.