What I found in my red lentils!

**updated with call to Bob's Red Mill**

I spoke with customer service this morning. Their response was that their beans are not processed in their gluten-free facility and run on equipment that will process wheat and barely on an "as needed" basis. There is no schedule. The process includes cleaning lines in between runs and then discarding the first 30 lbs processed to use as feed, but not to be sold in retail. Hmm...well, that process didn't work with my bag of red lentils! They said they record all complaints, so if you have found unwanted gluten in your Bob's Red Mill dried beans, call them at 800.349.2173.

Original post --

I use red lentils on a weekly basis, I love them! And being a vegetarian 99.9% of the time I rely on my beans. So when I found several of these in my Bob's Red Mill red lentils Saturday night, I was extremely disappointed. I was all ready to make veggie tacos, and had to scratch that whole idea and move to plan b.

I have never seen this in my beans before, but have read about it happening to other people. At first I wasn't even sure what it was, so I took this photo. But a visit yesterday to Whole Foods looking at the dried beans confirmed this is indeed an offending grain of barely. And there was more where that one grain came from.

I was so hungry, I was about to just eat the lentils anyway, but then I used the rational part of my brain and decided that was not a good idea at all. I ended up buying some organic lentils from Whole Foods yesterday, but I did not see red lentils there...my favorite.

I am actually going to be driving past the Gluten-Free Trading Company today, so I thought I would check and see if they sell any, otherwise....I need to find a reliable brand.