Garden of Life Sport Organic Plant-Based Protein — Vanilla
CR’s 2025 test put this NSF Certified for Sport plant protein in the once-a-week caution group for lead.
Why it ranks
Garden of Life Sport Organic Plant-Based Protein, Vanilla is now a more defensible caution pick than the old Raw Chocolate placeholder because Consumer Reports published product-specific numbers: 2.76 mcg lead and 1.93 mcg cadmium per 45 g serving. CR put Garden of Life’s Sport Organic Plant-Based Protein in the group consumers should limit to once a week. The live product page emphasizes USDA Organic, Non-GMO, vegan, gluten-free, and NSF Certified for Sport claims; those claims are useful for banned-substance and ingredient standards, but they do not erase the CR lead result.
Highlights
- CR 2025 product-specific data: 2.76 mcg lead per serving
- CR 2025 product-specific data: 1.93 mcg cadmium per serving
- Exact current Vanilla tub image verified from the official Garden of Life product page
Caveats
- NSF Certified for Sport is not the same thing as a zero-heavy-metal guarantee
- Organic plant-protein formulas can still carry soil-derived metals
- CR results are lot averages from products purchased in late 2024 / early 2025, not a live batch guarantee
- Prefer a non-chocolate whey isolate from the Clean Sixteen for daily use
Testing method
Consumer Reports 2025 multi-lot heavy-metals testing; CR methodology PDF reports ICP-MS metals screening