Nestlé recalls Lean Cuisine and Stouffer's Frozen Meals: Reasons, affected products, and more details explored
Nestlé USA has recently recalled multiple frozen meals after receiving complaints from consumers about the potential presence of foreign material. On March 17, 2025, the world's largest food & beverage company in a press releas e voluntarily announced the recall of a select batch of Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s Frozen Meals after they were found to have the potential presence of wood-like material.
The multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation has voluntarily recalled products including Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli, Lean Cuisine Lemon Garlic Shrimp Stir Fry, Lean Cuisine Spinach Artichoke Ravioli, and Stouffer’s Party Size Chicken Lasagna.
Why did Nestlé recall Lean Cuisine and Stouffer's Frozen Meals?
According to the press release on March 17, 2025, Nestlé USA made this recall decision after they were contacted by consumers about the foreign matter contamination including one potential choking incident.
Notably, the recall is isolated to a total of four products: Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli, Lean Cuisine Lemon Garlic Shrimp Stir Fry, Lean Cuisine Spinach Artichoke Ravioli, and Stouffer’s Party Size Chicken Lasagna.
The brand also confirms that this recall is only isolated to a limited quantity of batches of these products that were produced between August 2024 and March 2025. Meanwhile, the affected products were only distributed between September 2024 and March 2025 at major retailers in the U.S.
In the press release, the brand also confirmed that this recall does not involve any other frozen meals by Lean Cuisine or Stouffer.
Affected products
The brand has asked its consumers to check the recalled frozen meals by Lean Cuisine or Stouffer with the help of ten-digit batch codes that can be identified on the side of the product packaging. Notably, these codes are written before the best-before dates on the package.
1) Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli
Batch Number 4261595912; Corresponding Best-Before Date: October 2025
Batch Number: 4283595912; Corresponding Best-Before Date: November 2025
Batch Number: 4356595912; Corresponding Best-Before Date: January 2026
Batch Number: 5018595912; Corresponding Best-Before Date: February 2026
Batch Number: 5038595912; Corresponding Best-Before Date: March 2026
2) Lean Cuisine Spinach Artichoke Ravioli
Batch Number: 4311595912; Corresponding Best-Before Date: December 2025
Batch Number: 5002595912; Corresponding Best-Before Date: February 2026
Batch Number: 5037595912; Corresponding Best-Before Date: March 2026
Batch Number: 5064595912; Corresponding Best-Before Date: April 2026
3) Lean Cuisine Lemon Garlic Shrimp Stir Fry
Batch Number: 4214595511; Corresponding Best-Before Date: September 2025
4) Stouffer's Party Size Chicken Lasagna (96-ounce)
Batch Number: 4262595915; Corresponding Best-Before Date: October 2025
Batch Number: 4351595915; Corresponding Best-Before Date: January 2026
Batch Number: 5051595915; Corresponding Best-Before Date: March 2026
Batch Number: 5052595915; Corresponding Best-Before Date: March 2026
What should be done if someone has purchased the affected products?
The press release states that if a consumer has purchased the affected products, they should avoid preparing or consuming the product. The food brand has asked its customers to return these frozen meals to the retailer where they purchased them for a replacement or a full refund.
Meanwhile, Nestlé also reveals that they are working with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on this recall and are investigating the source of the wood-like material.