Cross-contamination? Schearer's Walmart's Great Value Gluten-Free Wavy Lightly Salted Original Potato Chips Gluten

[DEdwards]

I have attached pictures of pieces of something that looks to me like rye snack chips that I found in my Great Value Wavy Lightly Salted Original Potato Chips (that are labeled (Gluten-Free).  Does anyone know what these could be?  I called Walmart and they had me send a piece to the manufacturer (Schearer's in Massillon, Ohio).  It took a while to get an answer from them, but after calling back for the third time several months later, I was told by Walmart that Schearer's concluded that it was just potato starch.  Does anyone here know what potato starch looks like. To me, the dark chips look porous like bread. They are also much thicker than the potato chips.

If it is a gluten containing food, I just wanted to warn people here. I have my doubts that the Schearer's facility has adequate training and other measures to prevent accidental cross-contamination.  This may have been a freak accident or I could be wrong about what the dark porous chips are, but I would recommend avoiding their products till this can be further clarified.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51389423151_224bf86726_b.webp https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51390160469_ae094e22b4_b.webp https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51390163249_f2de8d5ca9_b.webp

 

[Scott Adams]

That is definitely odd, but potato start is generally not brown, unless it was cooked too long. It's possible a chunk of potato starch fell into the vats that they fry the chips in, and then got packaged with a bag. It seems like a reasonable explanation from the manufacturer, but the only way to be sure would be to have it tested for gluten.

[DEdwards]

8 minutes ago, Scott Adams said:

That is definitely odd, but potato start is generally not brown, unless it was cooked too long. It's possible a chunk of potato starch fell into the vats that they fry the chips in, and then got packaged with a bag. It seems like a reasonable explanation from the manufacturer, but the only way to be sure would be to have it tested for gluten.

Thanks for the response. I could accept the explanation that it was cooked too long for the change in color, but does overcooked potato starch become so porous in texture? That's the part that baffles me. I don't have an easy way to test for gluten personally. It's easier for me to just not trust this brand than to buy a test kit. I would like to warn people accurately though, so maybe I should look into that.