LIFECORE BIOMEDICAL, INC. \DE\

12. Stock-based compensation

The Company provides stock-based compensation to its employees undertwo plans:

•The 2019 Stock Incentive Plan is aseven-year plan that became effective upon stockholder approval at the Company’s 2019 Annual Meeting held on October 16, 2019 and has been subsequently amended with stockholder approval, most recently at the Annual Meeting held on August 15, 2024. This plan provides for the grant of stock options, stock grants, stock units and stock appreciation rights to employees, consultants and directors. Under the plan, no recipient may receive awards during any fiscal year that exceed 500,000 stock options,250,000 stock grants or stock units, or 500,000 stock appreciation rights, nor may any non-employee director be granted awards in excess of $350. As of March 31, 2026, the Company had 1,504,798 common shares reserved for new awards under the 2019 Stock Incentive Plan. The plan expires October 16, 2026. The Company has submitted a replacement plan for approval by stockholders during the 2026 annual meeting scheduled for June 4, 2026.

•The Equity Inducement Plan became effective on March 20, 2024. This plan provides for the grant of equity awards to individuals that were not previously employees or directors of the Company as an inducement material to the individual’s entry into employment with the Company. As of March 31, 2026, the Company had 145,474 common shares reserved for new awards under the Equity Inducement Plan.

The following table presents information about stock options:

There wereno stock option exercises during either of the periods presented.

The following table presents information about other stock-based awards:

The following table presents information about stock option balances and activity:

The following table presents information about recent RSU and PSU activity:

Stock-based compensation expense

The following table summarizes stock-based compensation by income statement line item:

Most of the stock-based compensation expense for the current period and going forward arises from RSU awards to the Company’s named executive officers under the Equity Inducement Plan and, to a lesser extent, to the Company’s directors. The RSU awards to named executive officers are expensed ratably over the course of each year as awards vest on each of the first five anniversaries of the grant date, which was their date of hire. The annual RSU awards to directors are expensed ratably over the course of each year in which they vest.

The Company has also issued PSU awards to its named executive officers, for which most of the expense has already been recognized through December 31, 2025. These awards are divided intoten equal tranches that will vest, if at all, based upon closing stock price milestones over afive-year performance period, and to the extent a PSU award tranche vests based on stock price performance,50% of the shares for each tranche will be issued immediately, and 50% of the shares will be issued on theone-year anniversary of the performance vesting date.

As of March 31, 2026, there was $12,354 of total unrecognized compensation expense related to unvested equity compensation awards granted under the Lifecore incentive stock plans. This total expense is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 2.0 years.

13. Income taxes