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Your Daily Protein Fix Might Be Coming with a Side of Lead, Report Warns
A recent investigation reveals popular protein powders and shakes often contain concerning levels of toxic heavy metals, despite the booming wellness trend.
For months, it seems like protein has been everyone’s favorite ingredient. What started as a niche supplement for “gym bros” has exploded into a full-blown wellness movement, with protein showing up in everything from pasta and cereal to cold foam at your favorite coffee shop. But an extensive investigation by Consumer Reports (CR) has uncovered a not-so-appetizing truth: a surprising amount of this protein comes contaminated with toxic heavy metals.
The report, published on October 14, is CR’s first deep dive into protein powders and shakes since 2010. Back then, they found “concerning levels of heavy metals,” but the category was still fairly specialized.
Now, as CR journalist Paris Martineau explained, “everybody, seemingly, is taking protein powder, and this kind of protein mania has emerged where people seem to believe that more protein can always be better.” This widespread adoption prompted CR to take another look, and what they found was unsettling.
“We wanted to take a look at this industry again, now that it has blown up so much,” Martineau stated. “And surprise, surprise, we found out that it seems like the risks have been growing right alongside the industry.”
‘We Advise Against Daily Use’
CR tested 23 of the most popular protein powders and ready-to-drink shakes available in the U.S. The results?
More than two-thirds of these products contained more lead in a single serving than CR’s food safety experts deem safe for daily consumption. Some even had ten times that amount.
For example, Naked Nutrition’s Vegan Mass Gainer registered a whopping 7.7 micrograms of lead per serving, which is 1,572% of CR’s recommended limit. Another popular choice, Huel Black Edition, contained 6.3 micrograms of lead, or 1,288% of the limit.
CR’s chemist, Tunde Akinleye, who led the testing, concluded in the report, “We advise against daily use for most protein powders, since many have high levels of heavy metals and none are necessary to hit your protein goals.”
Martineau herself expressed surprise, not just at the levels, but at the sheer consistency of the contamination. “I was surprised that protein powders contain detectable and concerning amounts of lead,” she said.
“I was surprised that more than two-thirds of the products we tested had high levels of lead.” Her biggest concern lies in how these products are used.
Unlike occasional treats, “the core user base often takes these products daily, or multiple times a day, which is a real risk.”
Even more concerning, the contamination appears to have worsened since CR’s previous testing. “We found higher levels of lead and a higher average level of lead,” Martineau explained.
“Even… the worst product we tested this time contained twice as much lead as the worst product we tested 15 years ago.” While one might expect safety standards to improve with an industry’s growth, “it’s not always the case,” she noted.
Many readers assumed manufacturing negligence was to blame, but Martineau clarified that the issue is more complex. The problem often starts at the source, with plant-based protein powders being overwhelmingly the most contaminated category.
These products, on average, contained about nine times the amount of lead found in dairy proteins like whey. The reason?
Plants absorb whatever is in their environment, including lead or cadmium in the soil. Furthermore, contamination can intensify during processing, as “protein supplements are highly processed food,” Martineau explained, noting the many steps involved in converting a plant into a powder.
The Regulatory Vacuum
If finding heavy metals in food sounds illegal, that’s another common assumption Martineau’s reporting debunked. The lack of regulation in the protein powder industry “really shocked” her. Because protein powders are classified as dietary supplements, they often operate in a regulatory gray area with limited oversight before hitting the market.
There are no federal limits on how much lead is allowed in protein powder. Companies are largely expected to self-regulate, and many don’t disclose any testing at all.
The FDA doesn’t approve supplements before they’re sold, a “strange setup,” as Martineau described it. To illustrate, the FDA inspected only 600 of the 12,000 registered supplement manufacturers last year, with only 90 of those inspections being foreign plants, despite a significant portion of the U.S. supplement supply chain running through overseas factories.
This regulatory void leaves consumers in the dark. While some brands tout NSF safety certifications, CR points out that NSF allows 10 micrograms of lead per day, which is 20 times CR’s much stricter limit of 0.5 micrograms. “CR takes a really conservative approach… there’s no known safe amount of lead,” Martineau emphasized, adding that some companies can produce products with very low lead levels, and more should follow suit.
Do You Even Need Protein Powder?
Despite the unfolding science, Martineau was firm on one point: most people simply don’t need protein powder.
“Many people don’t need as much protein as they think they do,” Martineau stated. “Unless you’re kind of in special groups-specific types of athletes, people who could be pregnant, older adults-you probably only need 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day… which is really easy to get by just eating whole foods.”
Harvard Health concurs, noting that the recommended daily protein intake is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. For a 140-pound adult, this translates to about 53 grams of protein per day, an amount easily achieved with everyday foods like a cup of Greek yogurt and a chicken breast, or a serving of tofu with beans.
The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is a minimum to prevent deficiency, not a target to exceed, and most Americans already surpass it. On average, protein accounts for about 16% of daily calories in the U.S. diet, exceeding the recommended 10%.
The core issue, Martineau noted, is cultural. “We basically have this kind of health halo around protein,” she said. Protein has become a marketing tool, transforming processed foods into “wellness objects.”
“Slapping protein on something does not make it a shortcut to health,” Martineau concluded. “The unsexy advice is actually a shortcut to health-eat whole foods-but that’s way less fun than protein-maxxing.”