Their results, published in October, were shocking \u2013 over two-thirds of the products contained more lead in a single serving than Consumer Reports\u2019 food safety experts consider safe to consume in a day.<\/p>\n
More worrying still, a single serving of some of the products contained as much as ten times Consumer Reports\u2019 dietary consumption limit.<\/p>\n
On the face of it, these sound like extremely unsafe amounts of lead to find in a product intended for human consumption. It\u2019s worth noting, however, that Consumer Reports sets its daily dietary consumption limit relatively low: 0.5 micrograms (\u03bcg) per day. In contrast, the US Food and Drug Administration\u2019s (FDA) daily dietary consumption limit is 12.5\u03bcg per day.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-1339952221-1.jpg\")
Protein powders are powdered forms of protein that either come from animal sources, such as casein or whey protein from milk, or plant sources like soybeans, peas or hemp. Source: Getty<\/p>\n
Why such a huge disparity between these recommendations? \u201cMy guess is that Consumer Reports uses much lower benchmark levels than the FDA because they\u2019re filling a regulatory gap,\u201d says Dr Kathrin Schilling<\/a>, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, in the US.<\/p>\n That regulatory gap exists in the US because supplements like protein powders aren\u2019t classed as food or drugs. They\u2019re classed as dietary supplements and governed by a different set of FDA regulations, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA).<\/p>\n \u201cSupplements in the US don\u2019t have federal limits for heavy metals, and manufacturers aren\u2019t required to prove their products are safe before they reach the market,\u201d says Schilling. \u201cGiven that science shows there\u2019s no safe level of lead [consumption], Consumer Reports may have set its own targets based solely on health protection.\u201d<\/p>\n In the UK and Europe, however, protein powders are classed as food products, not dietary supplements as they are in the US. That means companies must follow standard food-safety laws, including routine testing for contaminants. But does this guarantee that UK protein powders contain no lead?<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d says Schilling. \u201cEven with stricter oversight, trace levels can still appear.\u201d<\/p>\n The dangers<\/p>\n As Schilling states, there\u2019s no safe level of lead. This is according to both the World Health Organization (WHO)<\/a> and the environmental-health research that Schilling has been a part of.<\/p>\n Exposure to the toxic heavy metal can severely impact the brain, heart, liver and kidneys, and the harm it can cause has been extremely well documented.<\/p>\n For example, a major US study<\/a> published in The Lancet Public Health journal measured the blood lead levels of 14,000 adults over the course of 20 years. Researchers found that people with the highest blood lead levels were 37 per cent more likely to die from any cause than people with the lowest lead levels, and 70 per cent more likely to die from heart disease.<\/p>\n Similarly, the WHO estimated that in 2019, overexposure to, or overconsumption of, lead contributed to more than 300,000 stroke deaths worldwide<\/a>. <\/p>\n This is because lead damages the inner lining of blood vessels, which can cause inflammation, plaque buildup and high blood pressure. It\u2019s for this reason that the American Heart Association lists lead<\/a> as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n Other than the damage it can cause, one of the reasons why lead is so deadly is it can stay in the body for a long time. <\/p>\n \u201cOnce lead enters the body, it accumulates in bones, teeth and other tissues,\u201d says Schilling. \u201cIt can then remain locked in the skeleton for 10\u201330 years, steadily leaking back into the bloodstream over time.\u201d<\/p>\n This, unfortunately, compounds with the fact that it doesn\u2019t take a lot of lead to damage the body. Even when people are only consuming microgram amounts of lead each day, studies have linked this to a higher risk of developing heart disease, kidney problems and high blood pressure. <\/p>\n And, as previously mentioned, the body removes lead extremely slowly. So, even tiny, daily amounts of it accrue faster than they diminish.<\/p>\n Metal detecting<\/p>\n Consumer Reports\u2019 testing also found that the two protein powders with the highest lead content (up to 6.3\u03bcg and 7.7\u03bcg per serving) were plant-based products.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a good scientific reason why some plant-based protein powders showed higher metal levels,\u201d says Schilling. <\/p>\n \u201cCrops like peas, soy and hemp naturally take up metals from the soil. If the soil or irrigation water contains even small amounts of lead, the plants absorb it as they grow.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen those plants are processed, the metals that were in the original plant become concentrated in the final protein powder. So, the pattern Consumer Reports found is plausible. Their investigation only looked at 23 products, however. We don\u2019t know where the crops were grown or how the powders were manufactured.\u201d<\/p>\n We absorb lead from our environment in a similar way to plants and, unfortunately, decades of industrial lead use in paint, fuel, pipes and other materials have left residues that still enter our food, water and air today<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cLead remains in soil, dust and old infrastructure,\u201d Schilling says. \u201cIt can still find its way into our homes, water and food. And because it\u2019s so widespread in the environment, achieving absolute zero exposure is nearly impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2246687723-1.jpg\")
The body stores lead in the mineralising tissues of the bones and teeth, where it accumulates and can remain for decades. Source: Getty<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-1189161411-1.jpg\")
Soybeans are a key ingredient in many vegan and vegetarian supplements due to their high protein contentSource: Getty<\/p>\n