It’s unfortunate, but even well-known companies will “trick you” with something called a proprietary blend (or “protein blend”). When a company uses a proprietary blend with their protein powder, they don’t have to disclose the individual amount of each ingredient within the blend. This makes it pretty much impossible to know how much you're getting of each type of protein.

This “propietary blend” could look something like the below nutrition label:

By using a blend in the label instead of just a single protein source (e.g. “Whey Protein Isolate”), companies don’t have to disclose the individual amount of each ingredient in the blend. 

This means that for a protein blend like the above example, you could be getting mostly (e.g. 97%) a poor quality whey concentrate and only a small amount (e.g. 3%) of a higher quality whey isolate in the blend, in which case what you’re really buying is just a more expensive (yet less effective) whey protein concentrate.

To avoid falling into these traps, look at the nutrition label. More specifically, look at the amount of protein you’re actually getting relative to the total scoop size.

For example one protein powder brand can deliver 25g of protein for a 35g scoop, whereas another seemingly identical product could only deliver 20g of protein for that same 35g scoop. So pay attention to those two numbers and aim to find a protein powder that doesn’t have a very big discrepancy between them, otherwise you’ll be paying for less of what you really need, protein, and instead just getting more of the extra “junk” and fillers.

So, how do we avoid falling into the above “traps”? Simple - take a close look at the nutrition label!

On most protein powder nutrition labels like this one to the right you’ll see serving sizes of about 30-40 grams that only deliver 20-25 grams of protein. So what’s in the other 10-15 grams then? 

Simple - it’s full of unnecessary filler ingredients (preservatives, emulsifiers, thickeners, sugar alcohols, dyes, etc.) that won’t do anything to support your muscle-building goals.

So if the label looks similar to the one on the right, then steer away from it. This indicates that they’ve used a poor quality protein and/or have added a ton of extra fillers into it that you just don’t need.

The closer the protein content is to the serving amount, the more pure the protein powder is. It will never match 100% because of various flavorings and sweeteners, but any big discrepancy should steer you away.

By using only whey isolate with minimal additional ingredients within our Built With Science protein, we’re able to deliver 29 grams of high-quality protein per 36 grams scoop. 

We’ve removed all unnecessary ingredients keeping our formula to 4 simple ingredients, all without sacrificing taste and mixability. 

Truth is you don’t need more than 4 ingredients in a whey isolate protein powder because the protein is what delivers the results you want, not the filler ingredients. So when you’re thinking of buying any protein powder and there’s more than 4 ingredients make sure to look at the nutrition label like we’ve been showing you on this page.

If you just look closely at protein content and serving size on the food label and do the math, you won’t be tricked, right?

Unfortunately, manufacturers also resort to something called “amino acid spiking”.

To put it simply, this is a loophole that says you can legally (some do it illegally) add cheap low-quality amino acids to your protein powder and count them toward the total protein count. Great for supplement companies, not so great for consumers.

In fact, two identical protein powders that claim the same amount of protein and have the same serving size can have vastly different amino acid profiles. Yet these amino acid profiles are what determine the quality of the product.

So, aside from avoiding protein powders that use proprietary blends or include “amino acids” or “creatine” in their ingredients list, make sure to check the label for the full amino acid profile (including the amounts of each amino acid) of the protein powder. Credible protein supplements will make their amino acids label available for you to view, as we do:

In the case of whey protein, you mainly want to look at the leucine content because this is the single most important amino acid for muscle growth (and also the most expensive amino acid). Better quality protein will have more leucine.

Ideally, your protein powder should have at least 2.5g of leucine per scoop, as that’s what’s needed to maximize the muscle building response for most individuals.

We at Built With Science fully disclose our amino acid profile and proudly deliver around 3g of leucine per scoop as compared to the ~2-2.5g in most protein powders. We’ve even taken the extra steps to test for our leucine content in each batch prior and after production, just to ensure that we are indeed hitting the amount that we claim.

The last and final thing to look out for is contamination. Third party testing results from a 2018 analysis by the Clean Label Project found that among 134 tested protein powders, the vast majority of them had detectable levels of heavy metals and plastic derivatives as a result of their ingredient sourcing and manufacturing practices.

Detectable doesn’t mean dangerous, but many protein powders do indeed have levels that surpass what is considered “safe”. This is a common occurrence because supplement companies aren’t required to test their products for contaminants, and are instead left voluntarily to run those tests if they wish to pay the additional costs. As you’d expect, many companies don’t do.

We at Built With Science take our testing and quality control practices seriously. We invest the extra time and costs it takes to have each of our batches tested pre- and post production for heavy metals and contaminants by our GMP certified manufacturer.

We’ve taken the extra steps to make this a product you can trust.