Recent headlines on Clean Label Project's research are focusing on heavy metals found in protein supplements. Understandably, this research is raising important questions not just about plant-based ingredients, but about how we evaluate food safety itself.
You want the best, safest ingredients in your products. So do your customers. And so does our entire team.
To give you the most security in selecting the right protein, we want to be as open as possible to give you the data you need to make confident decisions.
Heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and arsenic have always occurred naturally in soil and water. They've been present in the environment for millennia, though human activity (such as historical use of leaded gasoline, industrial emissions, and certain pesticides) has increased concentrations in some areas.
Plants take up these minerals from the soil as they grow. It's not a contamination issue in the traditional sense, it's geology and biology intersecting. This creates a complicated reality: the presence of trace heavy metals in plant-based foods is nearly universal, but the amounts vary based on:
This is why comparisons between plant proteins and animal-derived proteins, or even between different flavors or formulations, can be misleading if these variables aren’t acknowledged. Plant-based ingredients are not inherently riskier. They are simply governed by different biological and agricultural realities.
If you're formulating with plant-based ingredients, here's what meaningful safety management looks like:
1. Know your sourcing geography: Generic commodity sourcing means variable heavy metal levels. Identity-preserved programs from specific growing regions deliver consistency, though they cost more and require supply chain complexity.
2. Understand your processing impact: Ask suppliers to demonstrate how their manufacturing affects heavy metal levels. For some metals, processing should reduce levels. For others, it may concentrate them. Either way, you need to know. When you partner with PURIS, we will share this information with you for any of the ingredients you are considering.
3. Test with purpose: Ask how your ingredients are tested for heavy metals. Questions might include, What are your action levels? What do you do when results come back elevated but within spec? How do you verify supplier claims?
4. Design for your consumer: A protein powder for adult athletes has different risk considerations than toddler snacks. Your specifications should accurately reflect your end-use and target population.
5. Communicate transparently: Consumers are smart enough to handle nuance. Explain your sourcing, your testing, and your safety rationale. Don't just slap on a warning or claim "clean" without context.
One of the best ways we know to give your customers peace of mind is to be diligent in knowing where your ingredients are sourced.
Every yellow field pea that is processed for PURIS protein is grown from a naturally bred seed. That seed is sold to and grown by partnering North American farmers, who have committed to regenerative agriculture practices that protect the integrity of the crop and the soil it grows in. From there, we buy each farmer's yield and process it ourselves in our very own facility in Central Minnesota.
Prioritizing sustainability and transparency in our supply chain isn't an easy choice. In fact, it adds a ton of challenges to our business model. But we prioritize it every day because companies like yours deserve to know where their ingredients come from (and that they're safe for consumers).
A lot of recent reporting relies heavily on California’s Proposition 65 “level of concern” for lead. It’s important to understand that Prop 65 is a legal notification threshold, not a toxicological safety limit. It was designed to trigger warnings, not to assess health outcomes. Under many other scientific frameworks (e.g., the World Health Organization), trace mineral levels commonly found in plant-based foods are well understood and broadly recognized as safe.
At PURIS, we test extensively across growing regions, harvest years, and processing conditions to understand how heavy metals behave throughout our supply chain. And through these diligent efforts, a few consistent patterns have emerged.
Lead and arsenic: Levels in our pea protein ingredients are often lower than in raw peas, suggesting that our processing methods reduce, rather than concentrate, these elements
Mercury: Consistently below detection limits
Cadmium: Closely managed through geography-specific sourcing; all PURIS peas are grown in eastern North Dakota, Minnesota, or Colorado, where soil profiles support lower variability
The takeaway is simple but important: not all plant proteins are the same. Sourcing strategy, regional agriculture, and processing decisions create real, measurable differences in outcomes.
We believe reducing heavy metal exposure is a shared responsibility across the food system. We've built rigorous testing protocols, developed identity-preserved sourcing programs for low-cadmium peas, and designed processing methods that consistently deliver clean ingredients.
Our internal specifications for heavy metals are among the most stringent in the industry. We supply ingredients for infant and toddler nutrition (applications where safety thresholds are strictest), and we've built our systems to meet those demands.
But we're not claiming zero risk or perfect purity. We're claiming responsibility: rigorous monitoring, transparent specifications, and continuous improvement. The recent media attention has been valuable. It's pushed the entire industry toward greater transparency and accountability. That's exactly what should happen. And we're here to protect our customers and consumers alike.