Your Protein Powder May Be Toxic! A New Study Reveals High Levels Of Lead And Cadmium

The Clean Label Project's (CLP) report titled CLP Insights: 2024-25 Protein Powder Category Report revealed that lead and cadmium is found in muscle-building protein powders. These over-the-counter protein powders contain a disturbing levels of these foreign elements, and the highest amounts are found in plant-based, organic, and chocolate-flavored products. The executive director of the Clean Label Project, Jaclyn Bowen said, "On average, organic protein powders had three times more lead and twice the amount of cadmium compared to non-organic products."

Plant-based Protein Powder

As per the US Environmental Protection Agency, there is no level of lead that is safe for humans. Cadmium, which is also found in the protein powder is a carcinogen, also toxic to the body's heart, kidney, gut, brain, respiratory and reproductive systems, says the US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Plant-based powders are made from soy, rice, peas, and other plants, and it contains three times more lead than whey-based products. This is because plants can naturally absorb heavy metals from planet's crust, but the levels can elevate if the soil has been contaminated by mining, industrial waste, and pesticides and fertilizers.

Chocolate flavored protein powder

Another key source of contamination in protein powders was chocolate flavoring. As per Bowen, chocolate-flavored protein powders contained four times the lead and up to 110 times more cadmium than vanilla-flavored powders.

In fact, a study by the researchers at George Washington University in 2024 in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Nutrition found that dark chocolate products are contaminated with lead and cadmium. The study found that more than 70 dark chocolate products sold at stores, and online retailing sites contain these toxic metals. The samplings were tested over the period of eight years from 2014 to 2022.

Researchers found lead levels in chocolate samples from zero to as high as 3.316 micrograms per daily servings. Whereas, the California guidelines only allows 0.5 micrograms per day. Similarly, cadmium levels were in the range of 0.29 to 14.12 micrograms per daily serving, with 4.1 micrograms a day the maximum allowed.

"Heavy metal contaminant is a global food safety problem. These contaminants are basically everywhere, including in things that are being represented as health foods,” said Bowen.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), an industry association that represents supplement manufacturers said that the CLP report did not have sufficient transparency about the criteria used for contamination threshold or of the basis of product selection.

“Without such clarity, consumers and industry stakeholders cannot fully evaluate the validity of the claims,” said Andrea Wong, CRN’s senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs.

“Modern analytical techniques can detect even trace levels of naturally occurring elements, such as heavy metals, which are present in soil, air, and water. These trace levels are often well below established safety thresholds set by federal agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),” he said.

Methodology

For the investigation, CLP purchased 160 products from 70 best-selling brands of protein powders, whose names were not disclosed in the report. The samples were then sent to an independent certified laboratory, which ran 36.000 individual tests on 258 different contaminants, including heavy metals, bisphenols, phthalates and perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

However, only the levels of lead, cadmium and bisphenol A and S were revealed in the report. Data on other contaminants will be revealed later, said Bowen.