Prior to publication, CR contacted the manufacturers of all 23 products we tested and shared with them our results and methodology. Seven companies did not respond to our requests for comment: BSN, Dymatize, Jocko Fuel, Muscle Milk, Owyn, PlantFusion, and Transparent Labs. Optimum Nutrition declined to comment, and Huel did not respond to questions about the amount of cadmium found in its product.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of those that responded, many say that lead is a naturally occurring element that is difficult to avoid, particularly in plant-based products. Eight companies\u2014Equip Foods, Garden of Life, KOS, Momentous, Muscle Meds, Muscle Tech, Orgain, and Vega\u2014say they test both their ingredients and finished products for heavy metals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Huel says that its ingredients undergo \u201crigorous testing\u201d and that the company is \u201cconfident in the current formulation and safety of the products.\u201d Naked Nutrition sources its ingredients from \u201cselect suppliers\u201d that provide documentation attesting that they were checked for heavy metals, says James Clark, chief marketing officer. \u201cWe take our customers\u2019 health very seriously,\u201d he says, noting that Naked Nutrition has requested a third-party test of its Mass Gainer powder in response to CR\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
John Koval, a spokesperson for Abbott, which makes Ensure, says that the lead levels CR found in its shakes are low for a product made with plant protein and that \u201cconsumers can be assured the product is safe.\u201d A spokesperson for Quest says that the levels of lead CR detected in its products are \u201cevidence that our robust food safety programs are working effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spokesperson Allie Droze says that Vega \u201ccomplies with all required safety standards and regulations\u201d and that CR\u2019s cadmium findings are \u201cinconsistent\u201d with the company\u2019s regular testing results. She adds that the firm operates under California Proposition 65 consent decrees\u2014legally binding settlement agreements that may allow companies to adhere to higher thresholds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Such agreements are typically signed to resolve claims that a company violated a California law requiring that businesses warn consumers before exposing them to certain harmful chemicals. In total, Vega has paid about $336,000 in penalties to resolve allegations made in 2013 and 2018 that its products contained high levels of lead, cadmium, or other heavy metals without appropriate warning. As part of the settlements, Vega admitted no wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Vega renamed the plant-based protein powder we analyzed and changed its sourcing practices for a key ingredient. The company now sources its pea protein\u2014which is the first listed ingredient in the rebranded Vega Protein + Recovery\u2014from North America instead of China. \u201cBecause naturally occurring heavy metal levels in plant proteins can reflect the soil in which crops are grown, this sourcing change is relevant to any testing considerations,\u201d Droze says.<\/p>\n
Momentous also recently conducted a \u201cmassive overhaul\u201d of its products to improve sourcing and \u201cclean up formulas\u201d for its dairy and plant-based protein powders, says spokesperson Will McClaran. \u201cThe Momentous products [CR] tested have been discontinued and are no longer commercially available,\u201d McClaran says. (Discontinued products are marked with a footnote in the chart above. We included them in our results because protein supplements have a long shelf life and consumers may still have them in their pantries.)<\/p>\n
Spokespeople for Garden of Life US and Orgain say their products are safe for daily use despite CR\u2019s recommended limits. They also specified that the companies\u2019 limits for heavy metals are determined by closely following the latest food safety guidance from the FDA, EPA, World Health Organization, and European Food Safety Authority.<\/p>\n
Most of those organizations do not have limits or guidelines for heavy metals in protein powders or dietary supplements, particularly with regard to lead. The EPA does not regulate lead levels in food but has set an action level of 10 parts per billion for lead in tap water. (The concentration of lead we found in the Garden of Life and Orgain products was 61 and 15 ppb, respectively.) The FDA has not set any action levels for lead in protein powders or shakes. The WHO has published no guidance on lead in supplements and, through its joint committee with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, has said there is no level of lead that is safe to consume weekly. The maximum amount of lead permitted in food supplements according to the EFSA is 3,000 ppb (3 mg\/kg), a level that CR\u2019s food safety experts say is far too high to be health protective.<\/p>\n
Momentous and Vega say their products are independently tested to ensure they meet standards set by the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency. To obtain certification by the NSF, dietary supplements must adhere to the group\u2019s limits of 10 micrograms per day for lead and inorganic arsenic, and 4.1 micrograms per day for cadmium.<\/p>\n
Muscle Meds says it tests its products to ensure compliance with a similar lead limit, 10 micrograms per serving. Naked Nutrition says it is \u201cin the process of obtaining\u201d NSF certification.<\/p>\n
We also shared our results with the FDA and asked about its oversight of the protein supplement industry. A spokesperson says the agency monitors contaminants in protein powders and shakes through its toxic element compliance program, special FDA surveys, and through a cooperative agreement with the states for laboratory funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will review the findings from Consumer Reports\u2019 testing along with other data we have collected to better inform where to focus our testing efforts and enforcement activities,\u201d the FDA spokesperson says.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prior to publication, CR contacted the manufacturers of all 23 products we tested and shared with them our…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":302948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[153877,153878,153869,153867,153859,210,153857,153863,153871,153860,153870,153879,153861,153858,1182,153862,153866,153875,153868,153873,63100,153874,153872,153865,153876,67,132,68,153864],"class_list":{"0":"post-302947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-bsn","9":"tag-dymatize","10":"tag-ensure","11":"tag-equip-foods","12":"tag-garden-of-life","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-huel","15":"tag-jocko-fuel","16":"tag-kos","17":"tag-momentous","18":"tag-muscle-milk","19":"tag-muscle-tech","20":"tag-musclemeds","21":"tag-naked-nutrition","22":"tag-nutrition","23":"tag-optimum-nutrition","24":"tag-orgain","25":"tag-owyn","26":"tag-plantfusion","27":"tag-protein-isolates","28":"tag-protein-powder","29":"tag-protein-shakes","30":"tag-protein-supplement","31":"tag-quest","32":"tag-transparent-labs","33":"tag-united-states","34":"tag-unitedstates","35":"tag-us","36":"tag-vega"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115373239498381410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}