A Virginia chocolate maker has pulled thousands of bars from store shelves across the tri-state area after broken glass turned up in a piece of its finished product. Gearharts Fine Chocolates, Inc., based in Charlottesville, Virginia, recalled 4,703 pieces of chocolate that were shipped nationwide, including to retailers in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.
The company issued the recall after broken glass was reportedly found in a piece of its finished product, according to PIX11, which cited the FDA in its report. The recalled chocolate was shipped to retailers across 17 states in total, a list that also included California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington, per a filing cited by It's Recalled. That same filing notes the available notice does not establish that every recalled package actually contains glass.
Which Packages Are Affected
The recall covers two package sizes: a 4-ounce product and an 8-ounce product. According to WRNJ Radio, the 4-ounce package carries UPC 8 98111 00205 7, while the 8-ounce package is listed under UPC 8 98111 00206. Shoppers in the tri-state region are being urged to check any Gearharts chocolate against those codes; News 12 reported the story after PIX11.
The affected pieces carry best-by dates ranging from Oct. 1 through Oct. 21, 2026, totaling the full 4,703-piece count, per the same filing cited by It's Recalled. Gearharts voluntarily initiated the recall on Sept. 22, 2026, according to the WRNJ Radio report, meaning the action predates the best-by window on some of the affected packaging.
What Isn't Yet Confirmed
Several details remain unconfirmed in the publicly available reporting. A direct recall notice identifying an FDA classification number for the Gearharts recall was not available in the reporting reviewed, and no complete lot-code list or fully verified retailer list has surfaced either. It also has not been established that every one of the 4,703 recalled pieces contains glass, only that broken glass was found in one finished product, per the filing referenced by It's Recalled.
Chocolate recalls tied to foreign material aren't unheard of elsewhere in the industry. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has separately logged a voluntary recall from Tony's Chocolonely covering seven lots of its Dark Almond Sea Salt Bar and Everything Bar over concerns the products may contain small stones — a different company and a different hazard from the Gearharts situation, but a reminder that foreign-object recalls crop up periodically in chocolate manufacturing.
