Last Updated on October 23, 2025 by higherring
Does your favorite protein powder contain dangerous levels of heavy metals?
Did you see the recent Consumer Reports investigation on protein powders? It was shocking. Popular U.S. protein powder brands were found to contain lead and cadmium levels up to 1,000 times higher than what California’s Prop 65 considers safe for daily exposure.
For many consumers, this was an eye-opener, and we think it should be. Heavy metals come from the soil and different plants take up more heavy metals than others. Heavy metals in the soil can vary greatly between growing regions, states and countries. Learning about heavy metals in the food supply is a full time job, and that doesn’t even take into consideration understanding daily heavy metal limits for what you’re eating! But understanding potential heavy metal exposure is important to your health. Heavy metals like lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury can build up in the body over time, and their presence in protein powders is often invisible to shoppers. It’s especially dangerous because protein powder is something that can be eaten daily, day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month. This type of long-term ingestion of even small amounts of these heavy metals can be a problem!
But here’s the good news: it doesn’t have to be this way.
ZEGO’s Purity Promise: Testing before you ever open the bag!
At ZEGO, we test ingredients before they go into bags that make their way into your home. That means when you buy ZEGO plant protein powder, you already know:
• Our lead levels are below 4% of California’s daily Prop 65 limit.
• Arsenic, cadmium, and mercury are also far below Prop 65’s strictest standards.
• We publish every test result so you can see it for yourself.
Comparison to Consumer Reports Findings
| Heavy Metal | ZEGO (per 18 gram serving) | Highest Reported from Consumer Report findings | Prop 65 Limit (per day) | % of Prop 65 |
| Lead | 0.018 µg | 7.7 µg | 0.5 µg | 3.6% |
| Cadmium | 0.018 µg | 9.2 µg | 4.1 µg | 0.4% |
| Arsenic | 3.6 µg | not reported | 10 µg | 36% |
| Mercury | 0.018 µg | not reported | 0.3 µg | 6% |
Why we were proud to say that we were out of stock
Earlier this year, we were out of stock on our Sacha Inchi protein powder for several months. That wasn’t a mistake. It was intentional.
Our previous supplier stopped producing, and when we tested potential new sources, every one came back with unacceptably high levels of lead or cadmium. Instead of compromising, we waited. We kept testing. And we only relaunched when we found a source that met our strict purity standards.
That’s what Purity Verification means to us — no shortcuts, even if it hurts our bottom line. We know that you were frustrated when it was out of stock, but we hope you think it’s worth the wait!
Transparency in action
Every bag of ZEGO protein powder includes a QR code. Scan it using your phone and you’ll see:
• Detailed purity test results for heavy metals like lead and cadmium and pesticide residues like glyphosate.
• A comparison thermometer showing how our results stack up against U.S. and European baby food standards.
• Clear explanations so you actually understand what the numbers mean.
Because we believe every consumer has the right to know what’s in their food!
Protect yourself from heavy metals in protein powders
You have power as a consumer. If you’re trying to protect yourself from heavy metals in protein powders we encourage you to:
- Check the numbers — not just the marketing. Do they back up their claims with data?
- Ask your favorite brands for their purity test results.
- No is a complete sentence. If a company isn’t willing to share their test data with customers, that’s a red flag.
- Choose companies that put transparency before profit.
- And of course, you can always find ZEGO’s results published openly on our website.
Heavy metals in protein powders aren’t just an industry issue — they’re a public health issue. But the solution isn’t complicated. It’s transparency.
That’s what we do at ZEGO — and we believe every protein powder company should do the same.