Before publication, CR contacted the manufacturers of all the products we tested and shared our results and methodology with them. We wanted to know whether they were using any unique sourcing or manufacturing processes that could explain their comparatively cleaner results, and what that might reveal about other manufacturers’ practices.
Premier Protein declined to comment. Representatives from Equate’s parent company, Walmart, and Clean Simple Eats didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
Truvani’s co-founder and co-CEO, Derek Halpern, said in an interview that what sets his company apart is the frequency with which it tests for heavy metals. “I’ve been told routinely by my manufacturers that the volume of tests that we ask for far outstrips anyone else they’ve ever worked with,” he said. “I just want a test result for every lot—that doesn’t seem that ridiculous to me.”
Truvani has tested its chocolate-flavored protein powder 162 times over the last 12 months, Halpern said. Every lot of Truvani products is tested for heavy metals and other contaminants, and ingredients that don’t meet internal standards are rejected. (Halpern declined to share the specific thresholds Truvani uses, but said that its lead standard is similar to the California Prop 65 limit that CR uses in its level of concern calculations.)
Halpern said he suspects less rigorous approaches are more common across the industry because they’re less costly and still technically meet FDA requirements. Some companies rely on spot-checks or certificates of analysis from ingredient suppliers instead of testing every finished lot, he said.
“It can be more expensive to ensure that every vat of your product is very low in lead,” says Cohen of Harvard Medical School. “And without a requirement that it be that way, it’s unlikely that the industry as a whole is going to move in that direction.”
Lindsay Dahl, chief impact officer at the supplement brand Ritual, says she thinks that “heavy metal testing transparency is feasible for the entire industry.” Ritual tests its ingredients and all finished goods for contamination, and uses California’s Prop 65 limit as a goalpost for most products, she says.
Ritual is unique in that it publishes detailed sourcing information for its products. “We openly share the final place of manufacturing and the names of our suppliers for the public to see,” says Dahl, who added that the company thinks that “ingredient traceability is the best way to help reduce contaminants.” She noted that the powder tested by CR was made with Puris-brand pea protein from North America and cocoa powder from several countries through Cocoa Horizons, a program that promotes sustainable and traceable farming.
“It took us three years of searching and testing different cocoa suppliers to finally launch a chocolate flavor version of Essential Protein,” says Dahl, who attributed the delay to Ritual’s heavy metal and human rights standards. “While we spend a tremendous amount of time working to find the highest quality suppliers, we also know it’s hard to have formulas that are entirely contaminant-free, which is where our product testing comes in.”
In a letter to Congress last year, Ritual’s CEO, Katerina Schneider, said that because plant-based protein powder is a “high-risk product,” the company publishes heavy metal test results for one recently released lot of each flavor of its Essential Protein powder on its website. In the letter, Schneider also took the rare step of advocating for greater industry regulation, calling on Congress to “empower the FDA to establish health-protective limits for heavy metals in supplements and protein powder.”
It’s a position also held by CR’s consumer advocates—and many others. A CR petition calling on the FDA to set strict standards for heavy metals in protein supplements has garnered over 43,000 signatures since October.
“The FDA is still lacking enforceable lead limits for protein powders and dietary supplements,” says Brian Ronholm, CR’s director of food policy. “Having these standards in place would push the industry to consistently make products with lower levels of lead, which our test results certainly demonstrate is possible for companies to do.”