Most likely they're just bits of pasta that broke off from the package being bounced around in manufacturing, transportation and delivery and just didn't cook up as well as whole pieces of pasta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4yrC5NXAakI found that happens a lot with the curly shapes, whether it's whole wheat or semolina (white) flour pastas. Right now, my husband and I eat the Tinkyada brown rice pastas exclusively and we've never run into that problem, but our son prefers the regular semolina pastas when he cooks his meals and runs into those bits a lot. Unfortunately, many usually land on the floor, leaking out the bottom of the box, before they get into the pot of boiling water.