I’m linking this article here since it has Canada specific information.

How is this regulated in Canada?

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in an email that it is responsible for the surveillance of chemical residues in foods and how they follow Canadian regulations, while Health Canada sets the maximum level for environmental and industrial pollutants in food.

However, it’s not clear whether these protein products are regulated as food or natural health products, and Health Canada could not respond to CBC’s questions by deadline.

Goodridge wants to see Health Canada set guidelines for these protein powders or dietary supplements, he said.

“There are no specific federal limits for lead in protein powders or dietary supplements,” Goodridge said. “This, in my opinion, is a big regulatory gap.”

    • Nik282000@lemmy.ca
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      10 hours ago

      A single serving of these protein powders contained between 1,200 and 1,600 percent of CR’s level of concern for lead, which is 0.5 micrograms per day.

      Canadians consume on average 0.1ug per kg bodyweight per day so that 0.5ug ‘level of concern’ is bullshit.

      https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-nutrition/food-safety/chemical-contaminants/environmental-contaminants/lead.html

      1600% of that suspicious limit would be within the norm for a an 80kg (175lb) person.

      • Pyr@lemmy.ca
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        7 hours ago

        But if that’s normal for a person, wouldn’t it still be concerning that these people are seeking out a product which effectively doubles the normal amount someone not on the supplement typically consumes naturally?

        If the average person consumes 0.1 / kg of body weight, wouldn’t this make it so they are now consuming 0.2 / kg of body weight?

        I know it’s still not %1600 and instead a %100 increase but still could be concerning.

        • Nik282000@lemmy.ca
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          7 hours ago

          It could be, but it could also be trivial given the 8x lead consumption in the 80’s.

          I think the whole protein powder industry is a fad but having the CBC legitimize claims like this is how you feed anti-science smooth brains. They get to point at the ‘health product’ and call foul because the CBC said there is killer lead in it. It took seconds to find the Canadian lead numbers, the CBC could have done the same to give context.

    • Classy Hatter@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      Looking at the list, it looks like plant based ones tend to have high amounts of lead, while whey proteins are in the lower end.

      Also, the list is pretty stupid. They use the number of servings as the measure of unit, instead of basing it on grams of protein. For example, “Momentous Whey Protein Isolate” has 20 g of protein per serving, and according to the list, it’s okay to consume 3 and a third servings per day, giving you 66 g of protein. “Dymatize Super Mass Gainer” has 52 g of protein per serving, and it’s okay to consume 4 servings per day, giving you 208 g of protein. 66 g vs 208 g of protein for the same amount of lead, yet in the list they are considered almost equal. Also, why do they first use “servings per week” and then in the better products “servings per day” as the unit of measure?

      • titter@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I think they are trying to show you "servings safe to consume over a time period. Servings per week vs daily servings probably indicates that those drinks have enough lead you should not be consuming them daily.