While all of our products are tested for the four common heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury), we wanted to show consumers the test results for the most recent lot of protein powder released. Heavy metals are top of consumers minds in the protein powder category and we wanted to provide an additional level of transparency. While reports have shown that some multivitamins contain high levels of lead, thankfully our testing program shows that this is not a concern for our multivitamins (don’t worry, we continue to test each lot before release to ensure they meet our standards).

Heavy metals are naturally occurring in the soil and environment and as a result are common to food and other naturally derived products, like plants, fruits, vegetables, other foods, home goods, and cosmetics. They are not added to products intentionally, but they are naturally present in the soil and environment.

Ritual has chosen to develop a vegan protein powder, which means the protein comes from plants (regeneratively farmed peas) rather than animal sources. Inherently this means that plant-based protein powders may have an increased risk for higher heavy metal concentrations. We don’t want to compromise our plant-based protein source (and inherently lower carbon footprint), so we have worked hard to partner with quality suppliers and implemented the traceability function for you to see test results for the most recently released lot yourself.

We use a state of the art, certified third party testing facility that uses ICP Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) testing equipment, which is highly sensitive. The detection limit is 0.01 ppm for all heavy metals tested.