Stewart's Shops Recalls Two Ice Cream Flavors After Metal Found in Carton

Stewart's Shop Corp. is recalling two half-gallon ice cream flavors sold across its Northeast convenience-store footprint after a customer found a metal object inside a carton, according to a notice posted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday.

The recalled products are Heavenly Medley, marked with a "best by" date of Feb. 10, 2027, and UPC 0 82086 44371 1, and Vanilla-Chocolate-Strawberry, best by Feb. 11, 2027, with UPC 0 82086 44377 3. Both were sold at Stewart's Shops locations in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire between July 17 and Oct. 2, 2026, the Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based chain said.

How It Was Discovered

The FDA notice says the recall was triggered after "a metal object was discovered by a consumer in a half-gallon carton of ice cream." The company said no injuries have been reported in connection with the issue, and that the recall was initiated "with the knowledge of" the FDA, which did not itself order the action but posted the company's notice as a public service. Stewart's, which operates several hundred company-owned stores across the region and is listed on the FDA's food recall tracking system, is asking customers who purchased either flavor to not consume it and instead return the carton to any Stewart's Shops location for a full refund.

The company's consumer-affairs contact, listed in the FDA filing as Robin Cooper, said the recall is limited to the two flavors and date codes named in the notice; other Stewart's ice cream products are not affected. The chain, which also operates gas stations and is known regionally for its own-brand dairy products made at a Saratoga Springs-area processing plant, posted information about the recall alongside its standard product listings on its corporate website.

A Regional, Employee-Owned Chain

Stewart's traces its roots to 1921, when brothers Percy and Charles Dake began making ice cream in Greenfield, N.Y. under the "Dake's Delicious Ice Cream" label; the Dake family opened the first Stewart's shop in nearby Ballston Spa in 1945. The chain has since grown into a roughly 400-shop convenience-store operator across New York, Vermont and New Hampshire with more than 5,000 employees, according to the company's own "Who We Are" history page. Stewart's describes itself as both family- and employee-owned: workers hold more than 40 percent of the company through an employee stock ownership plan the chain calls "Profit Sharing," which, unlike a 401(k), is funded entirely by the company rather than through employee payroll contributions.

What Shoppers Should Do

Consumers in the three affected states are advised to check freezer cartons against the listed UPC and best-by codes before eating the ice cream. The FDA sorts recalls into three severity classes, with Class I reserved for products posing a reasonable probability of serious injury or death, Class II for those with a remote probability of serious harm, and Class III for violations unlikely to cause any adverse health consequences, according to a classification guide published by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Foreign-object recalls like Stewart's can fall anywhere on that scale depending on the object and injury risk, though the agency has not yet published a formal classification for this one. Regardless of class, the FDA urges affected customers to discard or return flagged products rather than risk consuming them.

The recall is the latest in a steady drumbeat of food-safety actions this fall, as regional chains and national brands alike have pulled products ranging from frozen produce to deli items over contamination concerns. The FDA said it will update its recall posting if Stewart's expands the scope of the action.