Overview
- Testing of 23 popular powders and ready-to-drink shakes found that more than two-thirds exceeded Consumer Reports’ 0.5 microgram-per-day lead threshold, with some single servings topping it by more than tenfold.
- Plant-based products showed the highest contamination on average, with about nine times the lead of dairy-based powders and roughly double that of beef-based options, and two plant-based powders were flagged to avoid entirely.
- Naked Nutrition’s Vegan Mass Gainer registered 7.7 micrograms of lead per serving and Huel Black Edition measured 6.3 micrograms, while Garden of Life Sport Organic Plant-Based Protein and Momentous 100% Plant Protein also tested well above CR’s level of concern.
- Other heavy metals were detected, including 9.2 micrograms of cadmium in one serving of Huel Black Edition and 8.5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic in Optimum Nutrition’s Serious Mass, levels CR said exceed expert daily limits.
- Consumer Reports bought multiple samples from distinct lots and retailers over three months starting in November 2024; the FDA said it will review the findings to guide testing and enforcement, and companies responded by disputing aspects of the report or commissioning new tests.