Walk down the supplement aisle of any supermarket or scroll through online retailers, and you’ll find shelves stacked high with protein powders and shakes. These products, once the preserve of bodybuilders and elite athletes, have become a daily staple for millions of Americans—and increasingly, consumers around the world. But a new wave of concern is rippling through the booming protein supplement industry after a recent investigation by Consumer Reports revealed that many popular products contain unsafe levels of toxic heavy metals, especially lead.
On October 16, 2025, Consumer Reports, the well-known U.S. non-profit, released the findings of its latest independent analysis. Investigators anonymously purchased 23 protein powders and ready-to-drink shakes from leading brands, sourcing them from both online giants like Amazon and Walmart and brick-and-mortar health stores such as Whole Foods and Vitamin Shoppe. The products were then sent to a laboratory for rigorous testing—not just for their protein content, but for contamination by heavy metals including lead, cadmium, and arsenic.
The results were sobering. According to Consumer Reports, more than two-thirds of the tested products contained more lead in a single recommended serving than California’s strict daily guideline of 0.5 micrograms. Some products, in fact, exceeded this limit by more than tenfold. "For more than two-thirds of the products we analyzed, a single serving contained more lead than CR’s food safety experts say is safe to consume in a day—some by more than 10 times," wrote Paris Martineau, an investigative reporter for Consumer Reports who worked on the study, as quoted by The Healthy.
Lead wasn’t the only concern. The analysis also uncovered worrying levels of cadmium and inorganic arsenic, both classified as probable or known carcinogens by the Environmental Protection Agency. Despite these findings, all the products met or exceeded their labeled protein content, which ranged from 20 to 60 grams per serving.
With protein mania at an all-time high, many Americans—like NPR’s Elissa Nadworny, who confessed to using protein powder in her morning smoothie—are left wondering whether their daily shake is doing more harm than good. In an NPR interview, Martineau offered some perspective: "There’s no reason for anyone to panic. What we basically found is... some of the products we tested are fine to have occasionally, and even the ones with the highest lead levels are far below the concentration needed to cause immediate harm. The real risk with lead is, even if you are exposed to kind of low levels consistently over time, that lead could kind of build up in the body and eventually cause problems farther down the line."
So, what’s behind the contamination? Lead can enter protein powders from both natural and human-made sources. Crops used in plant-based protein products absorb lead from soil contaminated by volcanic activity, industrial emissions, or even old leaded gasoline and paint. According to government testing, lead is surprisingly common in the food supply: U.S. data from 2014 to 2016 found detectable levels in 27% of nearly 3,000 food samples, while an Australian study in 2019 found lead in 15% of 508 food samples.
But the protein supplement industry seems to be facing a unique challenge. Plant-based protein powders, in particular, emerged as a point of concern in the Consumer Reports analysis. "The lead levels we found in plant-based protein products were, on average, nine times the amount found in those made of, like, dairy proteins like whey and twice as great as beef-based proteins," Martineau told NPR. Two plant-based products—Naked Nutrition’s Vegan Mass Gainer and Huel’s Black Edition—stood out for their especially high lead content: a single serving of these contained 7.7 and 6.3 micrograms of lead, respectively, exceeding Consumer Reports’ daily safety threshold by more than 1,000%.
Animal-based proteins fared somewhat better. Whey-based powders generally had the lowest levels of lead, but even here, half the products tested still contained enough contamination that Consumer Reports’ experts advised against daily use. Only one product out of the 23 tested showed no detectable lead at all.
For consumers concerned about which brands are safer, the investigation did offer some guidance. Seven products were identified as “Better Choices for Daily Consumption,” including Muscle Tech 100% Mass Gainer, Dymatize Super Mass Gainer, Momentous Whey Protein Isolate, BSN Syntha-6 Protein Powder, Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey, Transparent Labs Mass Gainer, and Owyn Pro Elite High Protein Shake. However, even with these, experts recommend moderation and careful attention to serving sizes.
The health risks associated with lead exposure are well-documented. As the Mayo Clinic and International Agency for Research on Cancer note, lead is harmful to nearly every organ system. It can cause brain and nervous system damage, developmental disabilities in children, high blood pressure in adults, and complications during pregnancy such as premature birth and low birth weight. Lead is also listed as a possible carcinogen. While acute poisoning is rare at the levels found in protein powders, chronic exposure—even at low doses—can accumulate and cause lasting harm.
So, what do health authorities say is “safe”? Recommendations vary. Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) concludes there is no safe level of dietary lead and urges people to keep their exposure as low as possible. In 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated its maximum safe dietary lead levels to 2.2 micrograms a day for children and 8.8 micrograms a day for women of childbearing age. These limits are much higher than California’s, and under the FDA’s thresholds, all the tested products could technically be consumed daily by adults—though this doesn’t account for lead from other foods or environmental sources.
The industry, meanwhile, shows no signs of slowing down. According to Yahoo! Finance, the protein supplement market is projected to reach $38.29 billion by 2030, up from $23.90 billion in 2022. But with growth comes greater scrutiny. Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, didn’t mince words: "Our tests found that toxic heavy metal contamination in protein supplements is widespread and has worsened since we first analyzed these products 15 years ago." The organization has now launched a petition urging the FDA to set stronger regulatory standards for heavy metals in protein supplements.
What should consumers do in the meantime? Nutrition experts and investigators alike offer similar advice: don’t panic, but do be informed. Occasional use of protein powders is unlikely to pose a significant risk, but daily or frequent consumption—especially of plant-based products—could lead to unsafe lead intake. Most people, they point out, can easily meet their protein needs through whole foods. "For the average person, you can very easily get all the protein you need from eating whole foods, and it doesn’t make much sense to turn towards protein supplements," Martineau told NPR. Whole foods like dairy, eggs, lean meats, legumes, and whole grains not only provide protein but also offer other essential nutrients, and are generally less likely to be concentrated sources of heavy metals.
As the debate over supplement safety continues, one thing is clear: consumers deserve transparency and stronger protections. Until regulators act, the safest bet might just be to reach for real food—and check the label twice before scooping that powder into your next shake.
