Metal pieces pulled two Stewart’s ice creams from freezers in three states

A consumer found a metal object in a half-gallon carton of Stewart’s Shops ice cream, and the company responded on October 2, 2026, by recalling two of its flavors: Stewart’s Shops Vanilla Heavenly Medley and Stewart’s Shops Vanilla Chocolate Strawberry. Both were sold at every Stewart’s Shops location in three states, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.

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The company’s phrasing is plain. “The recall was initiated after a metal object was discovered by a consumer in a half-gallon carton of ice cream,” Stewart’s Shops said in its notice, adding that the recall is being made with the knowledge of the Food and Drug Administration. No injuries or illnesses had been reported at that point.

Two cartons, two recall numbers, one event

Nearly three weeks later the FDA’s enforcement report of October 21 logged the case as two records under a single event, number 100041. Recall H-0094-2027 covers Vanilla Heavenly Medley half gallons, UPC 0 82086 44371 1, best by February 10, 2027, with 10,392 units. Recall H-0093-2027 covers Vanilla Chocolate Strawberry half gallons, UPC 0 82086 44377 3, best by February 11, 2027, with 10,760 units. Together that is 21,152 cartons. Both records give the reason as “Foreign object: May contain pieces of metal,” and both show the firm-initiated, voluntary recall starting October 2, with the FDA classifying them on October 15.

Class II, and what the FDA means by it

Both recalls are Class II, the middle tier. The FDA’s recall definitions describe it as a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences, or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote. The top tier, by contrast, is reserved for a reasonable probability of serious harm or death, and Class III covers products unlikely to cause any adverse health consequences. Both records are listed with the status “Ongoing.” The classification matters because it shows how the agency weighed the hazard: a metal fragment in a frozen dessert is a physical-injury risk, assessed separately from pathogens or undeclared allergens, which have drawn top-tier labels in other entries of the same weekly report.

Seventy-seven days on the shelf

The dates on the record frame the exposure. Sales started July 17 and ran through October 2, a span of 77 days, which is also how long the two flavors stood in the stores’ freezers before the recall. A consumer’s discovery, not an internal inspection, set the recall in motion, and the FDA’s classification followed on October 15, thirteen days after the company’s announcement. The cartons are paperboard half gallons of frozen, ready-to-eat ice cream with a seven-month shelf life, and a best-by date of February 10, 2027 counted back seven months points to production around the beginning of July, consistent with a July 17 sales start; that back-calculation is arithmetic on the printed dates, not a figure the company published.

The announcement lists two UPCs and two best-by dates as the only identifiers: 0 82086 44371 1 with February 10, 2027 for Heavenly Medley, and 0 82086 44377 3 with February 11, 2027 for Vanilla Chocolate Strawberry. The FDA’s page carries the usual disclaimer that the agency does not endorse the company or its product.

All Stewart’s Shops stores in three states

According to the company’s announcement on FDA’s recall site, the cartons were sold between July 17 and October 2, 2026, at all Stewart’s Shops stores in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. The notice does not list lot or batch codes; the UPC and best-by date are the identifiers it provides. Stewart’s Shops Corp. is based in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The notice instructs customers not to eat the product and to return it to any Stewart’s Shops location for a full refund, and it names Robin Cooper as the company contact at 518-248-0455. Food Safety News reported the same product details on October 5.

Neither document identifies the metal, says where in the process it entered, or offers a cause. The FDA filed both flavors under one event number, and the company’s notice describes a single consumer report from one half-gallon carton as the trigger, with no injuries or illnesses reported in the notice or in Food Safety News’s account. The two flavors share only a vanilla base in their names, so whether the metal came from a common ingredient, a line or a batch is not something the public record settles.

The unit counts come only from the FDA’s enforcement entries; the company’s own notice does not state how many cartons were affected. With the sale window running to the day of the recall and each of the two flavors carrying roughly ten thousand units on the FDA record, the figure that remains unreported is how many of those cartons had already been eaten or discarded when the recall began. Neither the company notice nor the FDA entries give it, and both records stay open under the “Ongoing” status. Both entries sit alongside the rest of the week’s notices on the agency’s recalls and safety alerts index, which carries the FDA and industry press releases behind each classification.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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