Woman Opens Great Value Tortilla Chips From Walmart. Then She Spots Something Shocking: ‘Can Anyone Tell Us What This Is?’

A mother’s discovery inside a bag of Great Value tortilla chips left her concerned and others online gagging.

TikToker Shelby (@weightlossmama) showed off the weird-looking bonus item, which resembles Korg from Guardians of the Galaxy, rather than a salty, dippable snack.

“My son just opened up this bag of chips,” she says, holding up a green package of Walmart’s Great Value restaurant-style tortilla chips. Following this, she then holds up a large, hardened, brown mass to the camera. “What is this? It was in it—sealed bag. Great Value, what is that, Walmart? What is this? Can someone please let me know. Are these chips not good to eat then?”

Folks who replied to her video had varying opinions. There were more than a few who couldn’t fathom attempting to eat any of the chips in the bag after finding a mystery clump in them.

“Why ask what they are … don’t eat them, don’t touch it. Trash!” one passionately wrote.

Another simply stated, “When in doubt, throw it out.” Someone else expressed a bit more guttural response: “Yuck! No matter what it is, I wouldn’t even consider eating it, and I’d call the company and return it to Walmart ASAP.”

Someone else also advised Shelby to not consume the chips but that they, too, encountered a similar-looking chunk, albeit in a different food. “Throw them away had that in fries once,” they wrote.

So What Is The Mystery Mass?

One person speculated that the dark-colored, rock-like amalgam was just a bunch of burnt chips. But someone else thought it appeared to be “a clump of the seasonings” used in manufacturing the chips. “I’ve seen littler ones than that,” they added.

Shelby isn’t the only person to share such an unappetizing find in their food. In a December 2016 article published by Mirror UK, a man was also freaked out to find a similar-looking “disgusting brown lump” in their own bag of chips.

The man, Richard Noon, posted a photo of the chip to X, where people began offering their opinions as to what it could be. “People on Twitter are saying it’s hash and asking what it smells like – it doesn’t really smell of anything, just burnt crisps and a bit of cheese! We haven’t had a taste – we’re not that stupid!” Noon told the Mirror.

He also commented on the appearance and feel of the gross-looking mass. “It has the texture of rough charcoal and it’s about the size of a tennis ball. We think it’s a clump of pre-fried crisps that have got stuck in the oven, or a lump of seasoning,” he wrote. He also got into a back-and-forth with his five-year-old son at the time, who swore it was a deformed chip.

According to a spokesperson from the company who makes the chips, it looked like Noon’s kid was correct. “We take food safety and quality very seriously and are sorry for any upset caused. The lump is likely a cluster of overcooked potato chips which have unfortunately slipped through our quality checks, as a direct result of this we will be increasing the frequency of checks made by our team of fryers so this does not happen again. We have been consulting with Mr. Noon since this issue came to light,” the rep’s statement said.

Another Great Value Seasoning Stone

In 2025, this Reddit user who posted to the site’s r/Whatisthis sub uploaded a post stating that they, too, spotted a strange chunk that looked like a several toasted pumpernickel crackers in their bag of barbecue-flavored potato chips. “Anyone know what this is this? Found in Great Value BBQ chips at the end of the bag. At first when I grabbed it without seeing it I thought it was a super chip of like 10 combined but then was freaked out holding this large brown lump … what is it?” they asked.

Others echoed in the comments section of this Reddit post that they believed it was a Katamari Damacy roll of flavor powder that didn’t break apart during the cooking process.

“It’s a lump of the seasoning powder that is used to flavor the chips. It’s not that unusual to find big lumps of it in any bag of flavored snacks like chips,” one user on the site wrote.

Someone else echoed, “It’s the Flavour Crystal. Pulse this in a spice blender, then shake on plain popcorn, jacket potatoes, and chicken.”
But why does this happen? According to a piece from Science Insights, this is because “spice powders are naturally hygroscopic.” The erudite-sounding term means that these powders “pull water vapor out of their surroundings and hold onto it.” As moisture levels shift during this cooking process, so do the bonds that these spices form, leaving small, and sometimes large lumps of the stuff stuck together.

This is known as caking. And while it happens with a variety of different spices, substances, and chemicals, such as sugar, Science Insights writes that “garlic and onion powder are the worst.” This is due to the fact that these powders are “ground from fresh bulbs loaded with natural oils, sugars, and starches.” Additionally, the outlet writes that seeds rich in oil, such as cumin, as well as ground ginger, chili powder, and paprika are likely caking candidates.

 

BroBible has reached out to Walmart and Shelby via email for further comment.