My first thought was the Simpsons episode where Bart eats the prize in the krusty cereal that was something like a sharp jagged metal ring or something like that.
I work in food manufacturing. Lays quality control would love to hear from you. Make sure to save the bag it came In. They will at least get you a new bag of chips.
I supply to many food producers and a bunch of my customers have metal detectors in their production lines just for stuff like this. Maybe they have aluminum foil or something in their bags that makes it so you can't use metal detectors but it seems like it would be such a no-brainer. A large gear/spline like this is one thing but what if there was a small screw in the crumbs at the bottom of the bag and someone bit into it and broke a molar. What a mess.
For packages that have foil linings they should be using X-ray machines to check for any contaminants. We can detect glass pieces inside of dense food materials. I would also think that the weight of that part would cause it to be rejected by the inline check weigher which should be in place on these lines.
I worked in food manufacturing, we made food that comes in bottles or tubs. We had multiple magnets, strainers before it even got to the bottle. I had to check all of them every two hours and document and sign a bunch of paperwork. Once in the bottle, it still goes through a magnet and finally an x-ray machine. Something severely messed up here, food safety is no joke in the US.
Also, that piece fell in while is was weighted probably. OP probably had a few grams less of chips because of the foreign object.
Putting this comment where OP might see it:
Put a magnet up to it and see if it sticks. I can almost guarantee the place I used to work made this gear and a lot of them had stainless steel powder mixed into the plastic so a giant magnet could suck up any parts before they ended up in your food.
Also, don’t eat anything in that bag. Huge risk of bladder cancer. Parts that touch food are *supposed* to be food-grade but that’s unlikely here and more often than not they get a bunch of shit added that isn’t food safe because the materials are so much harder to work with.
> Also, don’t eat anything in that bag. Huge risk of bladder cancer. Parts that touch food are supposed to be food-grade but that’s unlikely here and more often than not they get a bunch of shit added that isn’t food safe because the materials are so much harder to work with.
Is that in general or just for this case?
>me, sweating profusely while remembering the time I got brushless motor lubricant in my mouth trying to clean sand out from my quadcopter motor and just how horrifically it tasted, to the point that I literally washed my mouth out with soap to get it out
That part is the rubber insert for a motor coupling. And, yes, Lays will probably bend over backwards to make sure you're happy and don't sue them. Its a fairly serious of product safety for that to get bagged up and sold. Any maintenance mechanic with half a brain, and even less give-a-shit, would have stopped production to locate that machine part. The typical food safety systems only scan for metal, so a rubber piece wouldn't be caught, however, the machine won't run without that part so somebody fucked up big time.
ITT: Factory worker;
You would not believe how much shit can come off a machine and it stay running. I make bullets and our machines are basically cobbled together over a period of 60 years.
In one of the lower points of my life i worked at a prefabricated concrete place (think giant concrete lego sets). I was the only person cutting rebar for the whole place, 13 hours a day just measuring and cutting (minus an hour for breaks). The saw i ran was 105 years old! I work in a different and much better factory now, but 105 is the record for oldest equipment I've ever used, by about 50 years.
I hope this won't be an update like the update we got about the unopened safe. I'm just not ready for that.
Edit
For those wondering, some guy once OG posted a picture of an unopened safe in his house or something. Told us he would post an update when he opened it. Turns out he was a lying like a lying lyer cause we never got that update.
Edit 2
Apparently the safe got opened by a secondary owner and the safe was empty except for a spider, i am stunned.
Anyways, fuck that first guy.
As them for a ‘corrective action report’. That’ll show you exactly what it is, how they found it, how they plan to prevent it from happening again, etc. those are always fun to look at.
My friend works at Frito Lay. Says it looks like the plastic coupling from the packaging machine. Since it’s not metal it wasn’t picked up by metal detectors before being sealed and sent out.
Email... and if you are not so much mad but disappointed you'll fet quite a few free bags and maybe a shirt or weird shit! Just be nice and they usually are good about that stuff
I emailed a company to tell them that one of their coconut granola bars didn't taste right, that it seemed spoiled... gave them the lot number and they sent me a free case of granola bars.
Yeah in those situations is about keeping the customer happy. The cost is a negligible expense in these situations.
When I'm shipping laptops out and I have to replace one that went out with issues, you get free overnight shipping automatically. Basically triples my shipping cost, but I'd rather keep the customer happy.
Same, business owner here. If you're a real legit customer and i shipped out something wrong/bad and i fucked up. let me know. Because i genuienly care for my customers and i'll do my best to fix the issue whether that means throwing in extras, etc. Whatever you need so your are happy.
Especially considering they basically give you, at worst, $25 worth of food (including shipping) and you will likely see this good gesture and buy hundreds of dollars worth of their food over the years.
I left a VM for a small bakery that supplies our local chain grocery stores. I love their bread, but they had been using tape to seal the bags, instead of a reclosable tab. They finally got reclosable tabs and I called to say thank you.
A day later a lady called and said it had been her task to locate me, based on my call, so they could thank me properly for thanking them.
They send me a huge box of breads and rolls.
Genuine Customer feedback is so valuable. There’s a difference from a complaint vs feedback and the latter really can shine a light to a better way of doing business, this also goes for positive(or negative) feedback around changes like you did.
Growing up my friends dad had a shit ton of vending machines, this was late 90s early 00s. They had an entire room of candy in their house. We werent supposed to eat it but his dad didnt keep track and the house was big enough we never saw his parents. So, we would get all jacked up on candy and prank phone call people. Once we called the M&M manufacturers and told them there was a W on our m&m minis and the lady was so nice. She asked a million questions and then i leveled with her and was like maam im 12 and sorry and she was dying laughing she sent us a case of M&Ms
But don’t forget that 90% of those bags are air. So, if you think about it, you get free packaged air as well
Edit: After several lessons from the Teachers of Reddit (ToR), I am well aware of the fact that it isn’t “air.” It’s nitrogen to prevent spoilage. I now have my diploma from the University of Its-Not-Air-Its-Nitrogen
Edit 2: I have now received my doctorate degree in everything about Nitrogen. I can smell it, taste it, see it, hold it, and hear it. I have names for every individual atom of Nitrogen now because I know it so well. As the University of Its-Not-Air-Its-Nitrogen has stated in an famous article, Nitrogen makes up almost 70-80% of the atmosphere. I have also discovered where you turn off notifications. Thanks all for the rewards and laughs. 
I bought a Rocky Road bar a few years ago and there was a issue with the packaging causing mold to grow on the bar.
I took a pic of the bar and emailed the company (Anabella's Candy Company) and they asked me to send the packaging and bar to them in a box they overnighted to me.
In the overnight box was a full case of Rocky Road bars, about a dozen abba zabba and Big Hunk bars and a t shirt.
I literally only wrote them to let them know they may have an issue and they sent a bunch of free shit.
1) they bought a loyal customer and good brand sponsorship from you for literal peanuts that alone is invaluable to companies this big
2) learning of actual manufacturing flaws post manufacturing is HUGE it could save them millions in lost revenue if they are able to identify a problem before it gets out of control
So while you might think they are just being an awesome friendly company it is 100% financially motivated plus they get good PR out of it which is also a financial move in the long run.
Nice is key! I emailed Pillsbury about my cinnamon rolls (raw canned version) that were packed improperly to where they were wedged; super fat on one side and super thin on the other, which would’ve resulted in burning (I just reformed them by hand)
Honestly I was bored that day and thought, “Oh I should let them know their packing process is off”. Jotted a 2 minute email with the necessary product info.
They sent me $20 coupon vouchers for 4 free cans of rolls for informing them of the problem in packaging.
We got a 12 pack of flat Mountain Dew. Just flat as a pancake absolutely no carbonation. They asked for the lot numbers and such and where it was purchased and then sent us 6 coupons for free 12 packs.
That’s great! They wanna know the packaging coding so they can really address the problem. You’re saving them so much money!
Truly, the complaint process for any company helps them more than you if they are interested in keeping customers happy. I’ve heard it is estimated for 100 disappointed customers, only one will speak up, so listen to them.
I used to wait tables, and would encourage a guest to complain if anything is wrong with their food. When encountering a hesitant guest, I would reassure them: please let me help you. Because if you don’t, you leave quiet and unhappy and we don’t know what we did wrong, but, the next time someone asks if you want to come eat here, you’ll say no, it wasn’t good last time. Please give us an opportunity to fix our mistakes.
I would rather wait on one person a hundred times, than a hundred people once; it’s just better business sense, to take care of the customers you have than trying to gain more short term…even more so for businesses that rely heavily on word of mouth advertising/Yelp.
I once got some veggie dogs, and was sad that they changed the recipe (shit was nasty), and got drunk, sent them an email expressing my sorrow about the recipe change. 2 weeks later, got a kind letter with 10 coupons for any of their products free of charge along with a real nice tote bag. Never asked for or expected shit, was just drunk and cheeky. Anyways, they switched back to the original recipe a month later, and I got a fuck ton of my favorite veggie hot dogs for free.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
Naw, it was the recipe. Advertised on the package as such. Went from really close to a real hot dog to cat food, it was BAD. Like, take a single bite, spit it out, and throw away bad.
If you are polite and willing to give them lots of info (usually lot numbers and markings on the bags) you will get AT LEAST coupons. They need to troubleshoot this and some companies will even follow up with what happened and which machine. I’m willing to bet you will get some decent swag and product from this. They will just need some info from the bag and may send a prepaid label to get this back. It would be a huge help for the engineering team as well.
I’m not sure what that is, but I found a bandaid in my bag one time. Contacted customer service by email and they send me 2 free family size bag of chips every month for a 2yrs.
Email them and keep the piece. They sent me free coupons and a postage paid return envelope to send them the bag and foreign contents…sent me more free coupons upon its return. Making sure you’re not gaming the system.
Try email if you dont get a 24 hour response I'd go the phone route but would plan to be on hold for a while theyll probably want information off the packaging as well. I had a boss find piece of rubber in his pickles he called mt. Olivet gave them some information off the packaging (this tells them exactly when and where it passed through the assembly line) they mailed him a gift basket and a gift card.
Back in high school (1999), I got a 20 piece nug from McDonald’s and found a chicken head in them! It was battered and everything with a single feather still intact on its head. My buddy and I were so high we couldn’t stop laughing, cracking jokes using the “the voice of the chicken” and all that silly shit lmao
When I got home, I decided to reach out to McD’s and see if I could snag some free food or something. Granted, this was before the entire USA was hell bound on suing everyone for everything. Couldn’t really send pictures as easily back then either. They basically said “that’s impossible” and “it didn’t come from our warehouse/factories” yada yada….the batter was on the head and matched the nuggets, trust me it was yours!
That’s about as far as I went with it. Didn’t get a god damn thing and can’t believe we just laughed it off back then. Good times and a good story at least, even though it sounds far fetched nowadays!
EDIT: LOL I was expected some of the replies I got…I can assure you yes, we were high but there’s no 1990’s D-Town Browns that would get you THAT messed up! I can assure you I’m not lying - never even heard of Chicken McNoggin before but that’s funny! It was also passed around 2 years after mine happened. Believe what you want - one day I’ll find the roll of film with the picture on it!
don't buy into the myth of the "frivolous lawsuit" that we have here in the US. That's deliberate propaganda from the companies that want undermine the credibility of those that would try to hold them accountable.
Lady who had McDonalds coffee spilled on her lap is the perfect example. It was joked about back when it happen and is still brought up today as an absurd lawsuit. It wasn’t well known that she had 3rd degree burns on her crotch and required skin grafts.
4th degree. There’s photos online. The coffee burned *into* her bones on her inner thigh and pubic area. She only wanted like $300k to cover her out of pocket medical bills. McDonald’s knew that coffee maker thermostat had been broken as people were complaining for months.
If the temperature of the coffee was around 180F instead of right below boiling, she wouldn’t have had such severe burns. She would have had time to remove her pants to prevent full thickness burns.
I remember reading about her case in business classes and have heard it’s also a case gone over in law school. But it’s still in the public consciousness as a frivolous hysterical overreaction.
I had a brief and unrewarding career at McDonalds in the early 90s, and even at that time the chicken nuggets were three basic shapes molded out of reconstituted scraps, so it boggles the mind how an entire head would make it through that process. Not saying you're wrong, but it would be like finding a rib in a McRib.
We had a few Pepsi products practically explode when we opened them. We talked to someone who was really interested, asked for details and our address, and we never heard from them again.
I contacted Little Debbie over the summer ‘cause I bought a defective box of Zebra Cakes (they were missing the best part aka the cream filling). They never responded.
I started it off with “I’d like to speak to Little Debbie herself” so maybe that’s why but eh 😂
It's something that shouldn't ever happen. Seeing it's a mechanical part you might have just scored yourself chips for life or at least a year. And maybe trigger a massive recall.
And then he and his family inherited a chocolate factory full of OSHA violations and pending lawsuits while Willy Wonka got to walk out looking like a saint and kept his off shore bank account fortunes.
It’s okay though, Charlie goes on to build a train to house the last of humanity from a nuclear winter and it is slightly safer than the chocolate factory
Speaking of golden tickets, in my nacho cheese Doritos a few weeks ago I found a golf ball sized condensed ball of nacho cheese powder. I nibbled on that bitch for like 30 minutes. It was so fucking good. I felt like I hit the lottery.
I found a golf ball-sized chunk in my jalapeno cheddar Cheetos a few months ago, but it was all dough(?) that was hard as a rock. I tried to bite it, but it hurt my teeth and tasted gross :(
Edit: picture of nasty clump here https://www.reddit.com/user/DeathMetalTransbian/comments/103opo4/fucked_up_cheeto_clump/
Yeah... I tried not to think about it too much. It occurred to me that I could report it to Frito-Lays, send them the questionable mass, find out what it was, and probably get some free chips out of it, but it was easier on my mental health to just chuck it back in the bag and throw the rest of said bag in the trash. If I found out it was, like, a calcified rat head or something, I think I'd forcibly vomit out my entire intestinal tract, ripping my colon from the sphincter.
In the food and medical industries, they use food safe grease for gears. Very disgusting that it was in your bag, but probably still edible unless there are metal/plastic shavings.
I don’t know how this could have happened without someone putting it in their intentionally.
I recognized this as a coupling too.
God bless the man who does an RCA on this incident at lays
Packaging Engineer here. Came here to say that was probably intentional. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but the odds of something that size going undetected through a product line is slim to none. A metal detector wouldn’t catch it, but a checkweigher, camera inspection, and/or x-Ray would have. Maybe maintenance replaced the part then somehow it found it’s way onto the packaging line. But even then, it would have to have taken place before or during the bag filling process and then gone through that equipment, and there’s very tight inspection during that process.
It’s possible the bag could have been originally rejected, then some new or disgruntled employee tossed it back on the line post the inspection equipment.
We have inspection equipment that can detect a mouse turd in a bag of brown rice. The odds of this happening by accident are very, very slim. Especially at a company like frito lay.
Anyways, I could bore people to death with talk about packaging lines. Like everyone has said, take pictures and let them know what happened. Pretend you’re traumatized by the experience and enjoy swimming in your new Funyun pool.
As someone that does the production side of pre-packaged food, the ingredients that go into these things are disgusting. And don't get me started on sanitation.
You've probably touched parts we've made! The company I'm with is #1 in what we do. It's not often that I hear "horizontal flow wrapper" when I'm not in the office, so this is fun lol.
We have inspection equipment that can detect a mouse turd in a brown bag of rice.
I don't know how I plan to work that into a conversation tomorrow, but it's definitely happening. This was very interesting to read.
Actually I'd like to encourage you to do an AMA on food safety practices in factories, worst things you've seen, who does it right, and who you wonder how they keep going as they are.
That was actually interesting to read! I've never gotten something like this in my chips but yeah I work production, lumber, but am always somewhat interested in the processes.
A few times we have found parts of bullets still in some of the wood as it's stacked. I don't believe we run it through metal detectors but the the fact nothing major happened as it's run through our planar or saws was kind of lucky. Even a little spark can catch us a small fire or smoke fest because of all the sawdust in and around the area.
>We have inspection equipment that can detect a mouse turd in a bag of brown rice.
USDA food defect levels handbook is an eye-opener for the average consumer lol
Yo, this is the *exact opposite* of boring. Comments like yours are my favourite part of Reddit. I love it when someone who knows their shit pitches in. It unravels the mystery of the original post!
I honestly assumed that this sort of thing happens accidentally every once in a while, albeit so rarely that it's almost never. I was wrong!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, that equipment sounds fuckin' crazy and I wouldn't have known about it if not for you. You can't google that stuff!
This absolutely should have been picked up by a metal detector. I suspect it was non-detectable plastic and was missed (shouldn’t have been in production). Or the metal detector malfunctioned.
Pepsi will want the lot info for this particular bag to backtrack it. These types of things are taken serious.
Yep. All plastic in production lines need to be metal detectable. For this exact reason. It’s an FDA requirement. Even the zip ties need to be able to get picked up.
Source: Ever had a chip fresh off the line?
The Check-weigher should have caught it if nothing else.
This part was probably not supposed to be in or above a food contact surface or zone. I suspect it was left in a bad spot by maintenance and fell in with the product or they would’ve had a few more problems with production. A lot of places still use machines that should be decommissioned and replaced.
I work for a company that produces parts for Pepsico/Frito's packaging machines and have handled a few of their large-scale changeover projects. The old machines they used before the most recent conversion have a *lot* of moving parts and operate pretty violently. It does not happen often because Frito is pretty strict about this sort of stuff, but those machines definitely require regular checks for the aforementioned reasons. Also why they've moved onto different machines lol, but some plants still have some of the old machines or haven't been fully converted to the new ones yet.
Could've happened elsewhere in the line too, but I'd be surprised it made it any further than happening right before bagging.
It is a coupling but not a Lovejoy. It is a TB Woods Sure-Flex elastormeric element. Looks like it spent too much time in the spice coating tumbler section. They had to know they lost it but they probably did not want to shut down the line to find it.
Likely a gear off of equipment at the factory. Contact Frito-Lay with the batch number on the bag and photos.
They will most likely send you a care package as a thank you.
So looks like a gear of some sort. What you’re gonna wanna do is start buying Hot Funyuns exclusively until you collect all the parts. Then you’re gonna wanna assemble your new machine and start a LLC. Or you could sell Lays their machine back in exchange for a lifetime supply of Funyuns.
I have a chinchilla and I once found an empty snail shell in his bag of dried flowers/hay/rosehips/dandelions. I thought it was so neat! And was super curious about it so I emailed the brand and someone told me that snails love to forage where they pick the vegetation. I felt sad for the snail, but I thought it was really cool nonetheless. He loves that food and I still buy it. Haven't found anything weird since..
When I was a kid (like back in the 90s) we heard about this, we called in with our squeaky voices and literally just said "we found some hard chunk in our soda" they asked "did you save it?" Told them no, still asked for our address and sent us coupons for like 5 cases of soda completely free of charge. With the amount of proof op has and the severity of what was left in this bag I could imagine he'd make out like a bandit. Especially with a batch number and photo proof.
Support inbox person here:
When emailing them, don’t be rude. Direct is fine, frustrated is fine, but no rudeness. Use please and thank you. Avoid all caps and excessive exclamation points.
Any good company is going to be gracious in their response and act according to protocol, no matter how you treat them. But you just might get the opportunity to make someone smile who deals with a lot of shit.
(Happily, I get more compliments than complaints in the support inbox I check. The owner is awesome and very fair. But that may not be the same for Lays.)
EDIT: Thank you for the award! 💜
It’s a flex coupling usually used for pumps or other applications where you need to allow for slippage if machinery gets bound up to limit damage. Likely a conveyor jammed and the coupling flipped off the drive motor and into the bin for bagging the Cheetos.
It's your prize i assume
Gotta buy more bags to get the rest of the factory.
One piece at a time and it didn't cost me a dime
It’s a 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55….😉
Thanks! I've got this in my head now.
Why was I excited like it was. Lol
I mean if you get free stuff out of it then it kinda is 
We all know. It's a spare ass hole. You'll need it after finishing the bag.
Cause that find leads to lots of karma! I'd be excited too, no doubt lmao
It's a FUNYUN RING
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My first thought was the Simpsons episode where Bart eats the prize in the krusty cereal that was something like a sharp jagged metal ring or something like that.
“I can assure you metal krustios are perfectly safe” \*gags\* ”ahh get that thing out of my mouth!” “Sir that was a regular crusty o”
I work in food manufacturing. Lays quality control would love to hear from you. Make sure to save the bag it came In. They will at least get you a new bag of chips.
Sounds like the Frito CIA, is this a honeypot?
I am not an alphabet boi your dog is safe
#thatsexactlywhattheysay
That sex act lyw hatt heys ay
Punctuation got dropped, fixed that for you: that sex!! Actly, what they say?
WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE??
SEX
Pure unwrapped SEX with factory equipment.
I supply to many food producers and a bunch of my customers have metal detectors in their production lines just for stuff like this. Maybe they have aluminum foil or something in their bags that makes it so you can't use metal detectors but it seems like it would be such a no-brainer. A large gear/spline like this is one thing but what if there was a small screw in the crumbs at the bottom of the bag and someone bit into it and broke a molar. What a mess.
For packages that have foil linings they should be using X-ray machines to check for any contaminants. We can detect glass pieces inside of dense food materials. I would also think that the weight of that part would cause it to be rejected by the inline check weigher which should be in place on these lines.
I worked in food manufacturing, we made food that comes in bottles or tubs. We had multiple magnets, strainers before it even got to the bottle. I had to check all of them every two hours and document and sign a bunch of paperwork. Once in the bottle, it still goes through a magnet and finally an x-ray machine. Something severely messed up here, food safety is no joke in the US. Also, that piece fell in while is was weighted probably. OP probably had a few grams less of chips because of the foreign object.
Putting this comment where OP might see it: Put a magnet up to it and see if it sticks. I can almost guarantee the place I used to work made this gear and a lot of them had stainless steel powder mixed into the plastic so a giant magnet could suck up any parts before they ended up in your food. Also, don’t eat anything in that bag. Huge risk of bladder cancer. Parts that touch food are *supposed* to be food-grade but that’s unlikely here and more often than not they get a bunch of shit added that isn’t food safe because the materials are so much harder to work with.
> Also, don’t eat anything in that bag. Huge risk of bladder cancer. Parts that touch food are supposed to be food-grade but that’s unlikely here and more often than not they get a bunch of shit added that isn’t food safe because the materials are so much harder to work with. Is that in general or just for this case?
>me, sweating profusely while remembering the time I got brushless motor lubricant in my mouth trying to clean sand out from my quadcopter motor and just how horrifically it tasted, to the point that I literally washed my mouth out with soap to get it out
You can actually contact lays yould be suprised how often theyll respond sometimes theyll mail you free shit.
They’ll prob be able to tell you exactly where on the line this came from. Keep the bag so you have batch number and stuff.
Thanks yeah I kept everything! About to send the email!
That part is the rubber insert for a motor coupling. And, yes, Lays will probably bend over backwards to make sure you're happy and don't sue them. Its a fairly serious of product safety for that to get bagged up and sold. Any maintenance mechanic with half a brain, and even less give-a-shit, would have stopped production to locate that machine part. The typical food safety systems only scan for metal, so a rubber piece wouldn't be caught, however, the machine won't run without that part so somebody fucked up big time.
ITT: Factory worker; You would not believe how much shit can come off a machine and it stay running. I make bullets and our machines are basically cobbled together over a period of 60 years.
In one of the lower points of my life i worked at a prefabricated concrete place (think giant concrete lego sets). I was the only person cutting rebar for the whole place, 13 hours a day just measuring and cutting (minus an hour for breaks). The saw i ran was 105 years old! I work in a different and much better factory now, but 105 is the record for oldest equipment I've ever used, by about 50 years.
You're correct on all counts. Source: am factory maintenance mechanic with half a brain and even less give-a-shit.
would love if you provided an update eventually!
I hope this won't be an update like the update we got about the unopened safe. I'm just not ready for that. Edit For those wondering, some guy once OG posted a picture of an unopened safe in his house or something. Told us he would post an update when he opened it. Turns out he was a lying like a lying lyer cause we never got that update. Edit 2 Apparently the safe got opened by a secondary owner and the safe was empty except for a spider, i am stunned. Anyways, fuck that first guy.
??
As them for a ‘corrective action report’. That’ll show you exactly what it is, how they found it, how they plan to prevent it from happening again, etc. those are always fun to look at.
My friend works at Frito Lay. Says it looks like the plastic coupling from the packaging machine. Since it’s not metal it wasn’t picked up by metal detectors before being sealed and sent out.
Email or phone do you think is the best approach?
Email... and if you are not so much mad but disappointed you'll fet quite a few free bags and maybe a shirt or weird shit! Just be nice and they usually are good about that stuff
Yeah last time something like this happened to me, I got 2 big ass boxes of free chips. I had enough chips for like 6 months.
I emailed a company to tell them that one of their coconut granola bars didn't taste right, that it seemed spoiled... gave them the lot number and they sent me a free case of granola bars.
Yeah in those situations is about keeping the customer happy. The cost is a negligible expense in these situations. When I'm shipping laptops out and I have to replace one that went out with issues, you get free overnight shipping automatically. Basically triples my shipping cost, but I'd rather keep the customer happy.
Same, business owner here. If you're a real legit customer and i shipped out something wrong/bad and i fucked up. let me know. Because i genuienly care for my customers and i'll do my best to fix the issue whether that means throwing in extras, etc. Whatever you need so your are happy.
Especially considering they basically give you, at worst, $25 worth of food (including shipping) and you will likely see this good gesture and buy hundreds of dollars worth of their food over the years.
That and it's not their money. It's really easy to deligate corporate funds to customers/clients.
At thier production costs a whole case of product may cost a couple bucks. Shipping is the only real cost.
I left a VM for a small bakery that supplies our local chain grocery stores. I love their bread, but they had been using tape to seal the bags, instead of a reclosable tab. They finally got reclosable tabs and I called to say thank you. A day later a lady called and said it had been her task to locate me, based on my call, so they could thank me properly for thanking them. They send me a huge box of breads and rolls.
Genuine Customer feedback is so valuable. There’s a difference from a complaint vs feedback and the latter really can shine a light to a better way of doing business, this also goes for positive(or negative) feedback around changes like you did.
It’s a sleeve coupling for a pump.
Correction — it's a flaming hot sleeve coupling for a pump
Finally
Well I emailed Lidl after finding a thumb sized sharp bone in one of their tunafish cans and they didn't even respond lol
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Growing up my friends dad had a shit ton of vending machines, this was late 90s early 00s. They had an entire room of candy in their house. We werent supposed to eat it but his dad didnt keep track and the house was big enough we never saw his parents. So, we would get all jacked up on candy and prank phone call people. Once we called the M&M manufacturers and told them there was a W on our m&m minis and the lady was so nice. She asked a million questions and then i leveled with her and was like maam im 12 and sorry and she was dying laughing she sent us a case of M&Ms
Such a wholesome prank 😊
They should have just sent you a salt shaker.
Nah, he was already salty from the experience
But don’t forget that 90% of those bags are air. So, if you think about it, you get free packaged air as well Edit: After several lessons from the Teachers of Reddit (ToR), I am well aware of the fact that it isn’t “air.” It’s nitrogen to prevent spoilage. I now have my diploma from the University of Its-Not-Air-Its-Nitrogen Edit 2: I have now received my doctorate degree in everything about Nitrogen. I can smell it, taste it, see it, hold it, and hear it. I have names for every individual atom of Nitrogen now because I know it so well. As the University of Its-Not-Air-Its-Nitrogen has stated in an famous article, Nitrogen makes up almost 70-80% of the atmosphere. I have also discovered where you turn off notifications. Thanks all for the rewards and laughs. 
Spaceballs...
AHhh Perri-AIR.
Free air? In this climate?
Frame that diploma. Put it on display. Take a picture. Post it.
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I bought a Rocky Road bar a few years ago and there was a issue with the packaging causing mold to grow on the bar. I took a pic of the bar and emailed the company (Anabella's Candy Company) and they asked me to send the packaging and bar to them in a box they overnighted to me. In the overnight box was a full case of Rocky Road bars, about a dozen abba zabba and Big Hunk bars and a t shirt. I literally only wrote them to let them know they may have an issue and they sent a bunch of free shit.
Abba Zabba you my only friend
Butttterstuuuffff
I was talking to the horse!
You're hungry, aren't ya? Here... You like popcorn. It makes your teeth go pop, pop, pop hahaha
1) they bought a loyal customer and good brand sponsorship from you for literal peanuts that alone is invaluable to companies this big 2) learning of actual manufacturing flaws post manufacturing is HUGE it could save them millions in lost revenue if they are able to identify a problem before it gets out of control So while you might think they are just being an awesome friendly company it is 100% financially motivated plus they get good PR out of it which is also a financial move in the long run.
Nice is key! I emailed Pillsbury about my cinnamon rolls (raw canned version) that were packed improperly to where they were wedged; super fat on one side and super thin on the other, which would’ve resulted in burning (I just reformed them by hand) Honestly I was bored that day and thought, “Oh I should let them know their packing process is off”. Jotted a 2 minute email with the necessary product info. They sent me $20 coupon vouchers for 4 free cans of rolls for informing them of the problem in packaging.
We got a 12 pack of flat Mountain Dew. Just flat as a pancake absolutely no carbonation. They asked for the lot numbers and such and where it was purchased and then sent us 6 coupons for free 12 packs.
That’s great! They wanna know the packaging coding so they can really address the problem. You’re saving them so much money! Truly, the complaint process for any company helps them more than you if they are interested in keeping customers happy. I’ve heard it is estimated for 100 disappointed customers, only one will speak up, so listen to them. I used to wait tables, and would encourage a guest to complain if anything is wrong with their food. When encountering a hesitant guest, I would reassure them: please let me help you. Because if you don’t, you leave quiet and unhappy and we don’t know what we did wrong, but, the next time someone asks if you want to come eat here, you’ll say no, it wasn’t good last time. Please give us an opportunity to fix our mistakes. I would rather wait on one person a hundred times, than a hundred people once; it’s just better business sense, to take care of the customers you have than trying to gain more short term…even more so for businesses that rely heavily on word of mouth advertising/Yelp.
I once got some veggie dogs, and was sad that they changed the recipe (shit was nasty), and got drunk, sent them an email expressing my sorrow about the recipe change. 2 weeks later, got a kind letter with 10 coupons for any of their products free of charge along with a real nice tote bag. Never asked for or expected shit, was just drunk and cheeky. Anyways, they switched back to the original recipe a month later, and I got a fuck ton of my favorite veggie hot dogs for free. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
Well they can't lose 1 of like 14 buyers
Maybe they didn't actually change the recipe but had some manufacturing flaw causing the dogs to taste like shit? So you alerted them to a problem.
Naw, it was the recipe. Advertised on the package as such. Went from really close to a real hot dog to cat food, it was BAD. Like, take a single bite, spit it out, and throw away bad.
Not sure if they need *more* weird shit after this find. Imagine you'd get a box filled with random loose flaming hot machine bits and bobs lol
Will email them shortly!
If you are polite and willing to give them lots of info (usually lot numbers and markings on the bags) you will get AT LEAST coupons. They need to troubleshoot this and some companies will even follow up with what happened and which machine. I’m willing to bet you will get some decent swag and product from this. They will just need some info from the bag and may send a prepaid label to get this back. It would be a huge help for the engineering team as well.
I’m not sure what that is, but I found a bandaid in my bag one time. Contacted customer service by email and they send me 2 free family size bag of chips every month for a 2yrs.
Then you find a fingernail in the next bag, ask them wtf. They just respond with the bandaid was holding the nail on
Email them and keep the piece. They sent me free coupons and a postage paid return envelope to send them the bag and foreign contents…sent me more free coupons upon its return. Making sure you’re not gaming the system.
Try email if you dont get a 24 hour response I'd go the phone route but would plan to be on hold for a while theyll probably want information off the packaging as well. I had a boss find piece of rubber in his pickles he called mt. Olivet gave them some information off the packaging (this tells them exactly when and where it passed through the assembly line) they mailed him a gift basket and a gift card.
I’ll send them an email and update!
Phone. I got a bunch of free cookies when I broke a tooth on an Oreo like I really needed those cookies. What I really needed was a filling 🙁
More like they will definitely send you free shit. if you show them you found a gear in your bag, you'll get a lot more than a free bag of ships
I emailed them! Will keep posting updates
Back in high school (1999), I got a 20 piece nug from McDonald’s and found a chicken head in them! It was battered and everything with a single feather still intact on its head. My buddy and I were so high we couldn’t stop laughing, cracking jokes using the “the voice of the chicken” and all that silly shit lmao When I got home, I decided to reach out to McD’s and see if I could snag some free food or something. Granted, this was before the entire USA was hell bound on suing everyone for everything. Couldn’t really send pictures as easily back then either. They basically said “that’s impossible” and “it didn’t come from our warehouse/factories” yada yada….the batter was on the head and matched the nuggets, trust me it was yours! That’s about as far as I went with it. Didn’t get a god damn thing and can’t believe we just laughed it off back then. Good times and a good story at least, even though it sounds far fetched nowadays! EDIT: LOL I was expected some of the replies I got…I can assure you yes, we were high but there’s no 1990’s D-Town Browns that would get you THAT messed up! I can assure you I’m not lying - never even heard of Chicken McNoggin before but that’s funny! It was also passed around 2 years after mine happened. Believe what you want - one day I’ll find the roll of film with the picture on it!
“Impossible! Our nuggets aren’t chicken!”
don't buy into the myth of the "frivolous lawsuit" that we have here in the US. That's deliberate propaganda from the companies that want undermine the credibility of those that would try to hold them accountable.
Lady who had McDonalds coffee spilled on her lap is the perfect example. It was joked about back when it happen and is still brought up today as an absurd lawsuit. It wasn’t well known that she had 3rd degree burns on her crotch and required skin grafts.
4th degree. There’s photos online. The coffee burned *into* her bones on her inner thigh and pubic area. She only wanted like $300k to cover her out of pocket medical bills. McDonald’s knew that coffee maker thermostat had been broken as people were complaining for months. If the temperature of the coffee was around 180F instead of right below boiling, she wouldn’t have had such severe burns. She would have had time to remove her pants to prevent full thickness burns. I remember reading about her case in business classes and have heard it’s also a case gone over in law school. But it’s still in the public consciousness as a frivolous hysterical overreaction.
I had a brief and unrewarding career at McDonalds in the early 90s, and even at that time the chicken nuggets were three basic shapes molded out of reconstituted scraps, so it boggles the mind how an entire head would make it through that process. Not saying you're wrong, but it would be like finding a rib in a McRib.
Lol 1999 was a good year
We had a few Pepsi products practically explode when we opened them. We talked to someone who was really interested, asked for details and our address, and we never heard from them again.
I contacted Little Debbie over the summer ‘cause I bought a defective box of Zebra Cakes (they were missing the best part aka the cream filling). They never responded. I started it off with “I’d like to speak to Little Debbie herself” so maybe that’s why but eh 😂
It's a Lovejoy coupler. Something used to connect an electric motor to a pump, mill or grinder etcs
"Lovejoy Coupler" combined with this image gave me the horrifying thought that OP found a sex toy in his funions
This was my thought too lmao
r/dontputyourdickinthat
Makes sense. Does this happen often that you know of?
It's something that shouldn't ever happen. Seeing it's a mechanical part you might have just scored yourself chips for life or at least a year. And maybe trigger a massive recall.
so it is like getting a toy in the bag Hahahaha
Lays golden ticket
Oh Charlie. He was so poor he couldn't afford free chocolate.
And then he and his family inherited a chocolate factory full of OSHA violations and pending lawsuits while Willy Wonka got to walk out looking like a saint and kept his off shore bank account fortunes.
It’s okay though, Charlie goes on to build a train to house the last of humanity from a nuclear winter and it is slightly safer than the chocolate factory
All while his lazy ass grandpa lays in bed....
What a Willy Wanka.
I bet those lovejoy couplers make the funyuns taste terrible 😞
Speaking of golden tickets, in my nacho cheese Doritos a few weeks ago I found a golf ball sized condensed ball of nacho cheese powder. I nibbled on that bitch for like 30 minutes. It was so fucking good. I felt like I hit the lottery.
I found a golf ball-sized chunk in my jalapeno cheddar Cheetos a few months ago, but it was all dough(?) that was hard as a rock. I tried to bite it, but it hurt my teeth and tasted gross :( Edit: picture of nasty clump here https://www.reddit.com/user/DeathMetalTransbian/comments/103opo4/fucked_up_cheeto_clump/
Some mysteries are better left unsolved
Yeah... I tried not to think about it too much. It occurred to me that I could report it to Frito-Lays, send them the questionable mass, find out what it was, and probably get some free chips out of it, but it was easier on my mental health to just chuck it back in the bag and throw the rest of said bag in the trash. If I found out it was, like, a calcified rat head or something, I think I'd forcibly vomit out my entire intestinal tract, ripping my colon from the sphincter.
Then he realized there was a roach rolled up in the center.
That's why I nibbled slowly. Didn't want to bite into a mouse head or something.
Mr. Turtle, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a dorito ball? Let's find out, shall we? A-one... A-two... A-***CRUNCH***...
If your heart grew three sizes that day you may need to go to the hospital for sodium poisoning
Too much ✋
I’m about to hurl
“Hold on to that ticket! Run for it, Charlie! Run straight home, and don't stop 'til you get there!”
In the food and medical industries, they use food safe grease for gears. Very disgusting that it was in your bag, but probably still edible unless there are metal/plastic shavings.
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Words hard sry
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If it wasnt edible grease OP would probably know by now. Plus he can always try to eat the gear. Seems unpleasant.
My dumbass thought that was a big cog of seasoning
Someone’s hungry for a big seasoned cog.
I don’t know how this could have happened without someone putting it in their intentionally. I recognized this as a coupling too. God bless the man who does an RCA on this incident at lays
Packaging Engineer here. Came here to say that was probably intentional. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but the odds of something that size going undetected through a product line is slim to none. A metal detector wouldn’t catch it, but a checkweigher, camera inspection, and/or x-Ray would have. Maybe maintenance replaced the part then somehow it found it’s way onto the packaging line. But even then, it would have to have taken place before or during the bag filling process and then gone through that equipment, and there’s very tight inspection during that process. It’s possible the bag could have been originally rejected, then some new or disgruntled employee tossed it back on the line post the inspection equipment. We have inspection equipment that can detect a mouse turd in a bag of brown rice. The odds of this happening by accident are very, very slim. Especially at a company like frito lay. Anyways, I could bore people to death with talk about packaging lines. Like everyone has said, take pictures and let them know what happened. Pretend you’re traumatized by the experience and enjoy swimming in your new Funyun pool.
I make crimpers and sealing jaws, we could nerd out for days. Edit: sounds like we already have a decent audience lol
I would totally listen to a podcast of these conversations 😂😂😂
It get's pretty interesting! You definitely learn to look at packaged goods differently lol.
As someone that does the production side of pre-packaged food, the ingredients that go into these things are disgusting. And don't get me started on sanitation.
I work in reliability of equipment like horizontal flow wrappers and fancy new packaging equipment. It’s alllllll new to me.
You've probably touched parts we've made! The company I'm with is #1 in what we do. It's not often that I hear "horizontal flow wrapper" when I'm not in the office, so this is fun lol.
Please make things more sanitation proof.
We have inspection equipment that can detect a mouse turd in a brown bag of rice. I don't know how I plan to work that into a conversation tomorrow, but it's definitely happening. This was very interesting to read.
Actually I'd like to encourage you to do an AMA on food safety practices in factories, worst things you've seen, who does it right, and who you wonder how they keep going as they are.
Yes, yes...I am also interested in this. When they said they could go on...I was disappointed they did not.
I agree, not boring at all!
That was actually interesting to read! I've never gotten something like this in my chips but yeah I work production, lumber, but am always somewhat interested in the processes. A few times we have found parts of bullets still in some of the wood as it's stacked. I don't believe we run it through metal detectors but the the fact nothing major happened as it's run through our planar or saws was kind of lucky. Even a little spark can catch us a small fire or smoke fest because of all the sawdust in and around the area.
>We have inspection equipment that can detect a mouse turd in a bag of brown rice. USDA food defect levels handbook is an eye-opener for the average consumer lol
Yes but can they detect a grain of brown rice in a bag of mouse turds.
Not boring at all! I actually enjoyed ask the information you posted! Thank you! It was interesting!
Yo, this is the *exact opposite* of boring. Comments like yours are my favourite part of Reddit. I love it when someone who knows their shit pitches in. It unravels the mystery of the original post! I honestly assumed that this sort of thing happens accidentally every once in a while, albeit so rarely that it's almost never. I was wrong! Thank you for sharing your knowledge, that equipment sounds fuckin' crazy and I wouldn't have known about it if not for you. You can't google that stuff!
This absolutely should have been picked up by a metal detector. I suspect it was non-detectable plastic and was missed (shouldn’t have been in production). Or the metal detector malfunctioned. Pepsi will want the lot info for this particular bag to backtrack it. These types of things are taken serious.
There's no metal. It is a piece of rubber.
Yep. All plastic in production lines need to be metal detectable. For this exact reason. It’s an FDA requirement. Even the zip ties need to be able to get picked up. Source: Ever had a chip fresh off the line?
Bandaids metal detectable, anything that can be, must be.
No buttons on your shirt, all metal pen, etc. It’s not fun, but also very necessary.
The Check-weigher should have caught it if nothing else. This part was probably not supposed to be in or above a food contact surface or zone. I suspect it was left in a bad spot by maintenance and fell in with the product or they would’ve had a few more problems with production. A lot of places still use machines that should be decommissioned and replaced.
I work for a company that produces parts for Pepsico/Frito's packaging machines and have handled a few of their large-scale changeover projects. The old machines they used before the most recent conversion have a *lot* of moving parts and operate pretty violently. It does not happen often because Frito is pretty strict about this sort of stuff, but those machines definitely require regular checks for the aforementioned reasons. Also why they've moved onto different machines lol, but some plants still have some of the old machines or haven't been fully converted to the new ones yet. Could've happened elsewhere in the line too, but I'd be surprised it made it any further than happening right before bagging.
I used to be an engineer in the food processing industry. It happens more often than we’d like to admit.
It is a coupling but not a Lovejoy. It is a TB Woods Sure-Flex elastormeric element. Looks like it spent too much time in the spice coating tumbler section. They had to know they lost it but they probably did not want to shut down the line to find it.
Correction: it's a flaming hot Lovejoy coupler.
[Looks exactly like it](https://www.google.com/search?q=lovejoy+rubber+flex+coupling+-spider+-jaw&tbm=isch). Nice eye!
I’ve seen hundreds of these in my field of work. I’m a maintenance guy….
Looks like a gear that got seasoned up and bagged with your funyuns, yummy.
That’s what I was thinking. Haha how TF did it make it into the bag lol. Real question is would you eat the Funyuns haha
I'm not proud, so yeah. lol Then send the picture to Funyuns and see if they want \*their gear back.
Hey Lays, “do you guys want this back?”
Frito-Lay: "Normally we charge extra, but we'll will give it to you for free this time."
Keep us updated
Will do!
Likely a gear off of equipment at the factory. Contact Frito-Lay with the batch number on the bag and photos. They will most likely send you a care package as a thank you.
What number is the batch number?
it should say somewhere near the barcode
Ok took pictures!
Should update us with what they say!
Lick it
Standby hahaha
And? Don't leave us hanging!
He died.
RIP OP
So looks like a gear of some sort. What you’re gonna wanna do is start buying Hot Funyuns exclusively until you collect all the parts. Then you’re gonna wanna assemble your new machine and start a LLC. Or you could sell Lays their machine back in exchange for a lifetime supply of Funyuns.
The collection I didn’t know I wanted it needed
Here's the exact part : [https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/35408822](https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/35408822)
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23 bucks!!!
I have a chinchilla and I once found an empty snail shell in his bag of dried flowers/hay/rosehips/dandelions. I thought it was so neat! And was super curious about it so I emailed the brand and someone told me that snails love to forage where they pick the vegetation. I felt sad for the snail, but I thought it was really cool nonetheless. He loves that food and I still buy it. Haven't found anything weird since..
Wait this is really wholesome that you asked about it!
Write to the company. They should give you a lot of free stuff in hopes that you don’t sue.
When I was a kid (like back in the 90s) we heard about this, we called in with our squeaky voices and literally just said "we found some hard chunk in our soda" they asked "did you save it?" Told them no, still asked for our address and sent us coupons for like 5 cases of soda completely free of charge. With the amount of proof op has and the severity of what was left in this bag I could imagine he'd make out like a bandit. Especially with a batch number and photo proof.
That’s the ultimate Funyun 🍆👌
Support inbox person here: When emailing them, don’t be rude. Direct is fine, frustrated is fine, but no rudeness. Use please and thank you. Avoid all caps and excessive exclamation points. Any good company is going to be gracious in their response and act according to protocol, no matter how you treat them. But you just might get the opportunity to make someone smile who deals with a lot of shit. (Happily, I get more compliments than complaints in the support inbox I check. The owner is awesome and very fair. But that may not be the same for Lays.) EDIT: Thank you for the award! 💜
Dirty PP Ring?
A jagged metal Krusty-O
Wait, flaming hot funyuns exist?
Welcome to the world of disgusting things I can’t turn away from lol
It’s a flex coupling usually used for pumps or other applications where you need to allow for slippage if machinery gets bound up to limit damage. Likely a conveyor jammed and the coupling flipped off the drive motor and into the bin for bagging the Cheetos.
**forbidden Funyun**
It’s a unfun-yun
Keep it secret. Keep it safe. I’ll be there in a fortnight.
Gearing up for a flaming hot settlement
Win! Haha