Stewart’s Shops Recalls Heavenly Medley and Vanilla-Chocolate-Strawberry Half-Gallon Ice Cream for Possible Metal

Stewart’s Shops Corp. of Saratoga Springs, New York, is recalling two flavors of its half-gallon ice cream, Heavenly Medley and Vanilla-Chocolate-Strawberry, because the cartons may contain metal. The recalled ice cream was sold at every Stewart’s Shops location in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire between July 17 and October 2, 2026. According to the recall notice posted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on October 2, no injuries or illnesses have been reported.

The recall began after a customer found a metal object in a half-gallon carton. The company says the recall is being made with FDA’s knowledge.

Which Stewart’s ice cream is recalled?

The notice covers two flavors, each with a single best-by date, packed in half-gallon (1.89-liter) paperboard cartons. The ice cream was sold frozen and carries a seven-month shelf life, which means cartons bought in July could still be sitting in home freezers.

The best-by date is printed on the carton. The notice lists only these two flavors and these two dates.

Where was it sold?

Stewart’s makes its own ice cream and sells it through its shops. The notice says the recalled cartons went to all Stewart’s Shops locations in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, and were on sale from July 17 through October 2, 2026, the day the recall was announced.

What should consumers do?

• Check your freezer for either flavor with the matching best-by date and UPC.
• Do not eat it. Return the carton to any Stewart’s Shops location for a full refund.
• Questions about the recall go to Robin Cooper at Stewart’s Shops, 518-248-0455 or rcooper@stewartsshops.com.
• If you ate the ice cream and have pain in your mouth, throat, chest or abdomen, trouble swallowing, or bleeding, see a doctor and mention the recall. Injuries from food can also be reported to FDA.

Why metal in ice cream is a recall, not a complaint

FDA’s Compliance Policy Guide on hard or sharp foreign objects explains the hazard: metal, glass and similar fragments can lacerate or perforate the mouth, tongue, throat, stomach and intestine, and can break teeth. FDA treats a ready-to-eat food as adulterated when it contains a hard or sharp object 7 to 25 millimeters long, and it treats anything longer than 25 millimeters the same way. Smaller fragments are a concern when infants, the elderly or people recovering from surgery are among those likely to eat the food.

Ice cream is close to a worst case for a metal fragment. It is eaten straight from the carton, often by children, with no cooking step that might reveal or remove a fragment, and a frozen product hides whatever is in it until it is in someone’s mouth.

What the notice does not say

The announcement does not say what the metal object was, how large it was, where it came from, or whether the company has identified and corrected the source. It does not say whether other flavors produced on the same equipment and dates were examined. If Stewart’s sets its best-by date seven months out from production, the two dates in the recall correspond to ice cream made on or about July 10 and 11, 2026, a narrow window that suggests the company traced the complaint to two specific production days.

Stewart’s has been here before. In 2011, a malfunctioning dasher, the rotating scraper inside the freezing cylinder, led the company to shut down its ice cream plant and recall about 100,000 gallons of product for foreign material, according to an account its risk manager gave at an industry forum that year. The company said at the time that it handled that recall more aggressively than its classification required.

A single customer complaint triggered this recall, and that is how the system is supposed to work. What customers in three states should hear next, from the company or from FDA, is what the metal was, how it got into the ice cream, and what has been done to keep it out.