🥤Protein powders

Clean Label Project Protein Study 2.0 tested roughly 160–165 protein powders for arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury via ICP-MS. CLP’s live page says absence from the Clean Sixteen is not automatically a fail and links a June 2025 Clean Sixteen one-sheeter labeled “by purity”; that PDF names 16 products as non-detect for lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic but does not publish per-product numeric values. This parent-care top 3 follows the one-sheeter’s first three while still treating them as a clean non-detect tier and using current transparency, additive simplicity, and image-verification confidence as tie-breakers. Consumer Reports 2025/2026 adds multi-lot, product-specific context: strong caution signals for some plant/mass-gainer powders and a newer low-lead watchlist showing select chocolate powders can be cleaner than the category stereotype. Certification seals are not treated as heavy-metal non-detect unless paired with product-specific results. CR also tested protein content and reported that the 2025 products met or exceeded their label protein claims, so this ranking is not making an amino-spiking allegation without product-specific evidence.