Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

Did you know that up to 30% of protein products on the market contain detectable levels of lead?

14 Feb 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

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In this YouTube monologue, Dr. Aaron Hartman highlights a Consumer Reports investigation from November 2025 that found roughly 30% of commercially available protein products—such as collagen, beef protein, and other animal-derived supplements—contain detectable levels of lead. He explains that lead accumulates in animal bones and connective tissues, enters the food chain through feed grains, and can be present in milk and other animal products. To protect themselves, consumers are urged to seek manufacturers that can provide a Certificate of Analysis (COA) confirming lead-free status; without such documentation, the presence of lead is uncertain. Hartman points viewers to his website’s blogs and resources that list vetted, clean protein sources, emphasizing the importance of verifying product safety to avoid unknowingly ingesting lead.

Chapters

Did you know that 30% of protein products on the market right now have lead in them? This actually came out in Consumer Reports beginning of November of 2025. Now, why is there lead in collagen or beef protein? Well, there's actually a lot of lead in bones. Your bones actually store lead connective tissues and they're actually in the food. The grains that allow the chicken eat, same thing for cows. They put it in their body and comes out in their milk. How can you make sure your protein doesn't have lead in it? You should find a manufacturer that actually can get their certificate of analysis. But if you can't get that, then you have no idea if there's light or not. If you buy three different products, odds are one of them has had light in it. This is a big deal and we have resources on our website, we have a bunch of blogs on it, and we've talked about it as well. And we can actually have a place we can get clean products as well. But if you do own journey, which is 100% cool, make sure you're getting that certificate analysis to make sure that's a clean product. Because if not, you have no idea what you're consuming.