Heavy metals in Pea protein

Pea protein overview

Pea protein on this page is the powdered protein fraction of field pea, sold as an isolate, a concentrate, or a retail powder. Whole peas and multi-ingredient blends are discussed only where a study measured them, and they are not pooled with the isolate. Two retail pea powders bought online and in Cork, Ireland, in 2016 and 2017 contained 40.6 and 15.4 µg/kg cadmium and 22.2 and 22.5 µg/kg lead, as sold.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} Total mercury in those two powders was 4.3 µg/kg and below 0.2 µg/kg, total chromium was 289.2 and 210.7 µg/kg, and total tin was 26.7 and 329.7 µg/kg.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} Two anonymized commercial pea concentrates, each bought twice, showed nickel means of 585.49 and 268.27 µg/kg and total chromium means of 78.97 and 114.11 µg/kg, with cadmium and lead not detected.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} The European cadmium maximum that names proteins from pulses is 100 µg/kg, set beside 40 µg/kg for pulses other than that protein row.^{3European Commission · 2021Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 of 10 August 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union (OJ L 288, 11.8.2021, p. 13–18)Read source →}

For a buyer the first distinction is the material: isolate or concentrate versus whole seed, frozen peas, or a blend. The second is the basis, because a dry-weight fruit result and an as-sold powder result are not the same measurement. The third is the reporting limit, because a non-detect is an interval up to that limit and not a measured zero. The Irish powders and the Spanish concentrates do not record the country where the peas were grown, so they cannot rank Canada, China, or the European Union as growing origins.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} Lot testing describes the lot in hand, and it does not remove cadmium, lead, or any other element from the powder.

What counts as pea protein

This page covers pea protein as a food ingredient: the protein-rich powder made from field pea, including isolates and concentrates sold as such. The Irish evidence is two retail products the authors classified as pea, among 36 protein powders that also included whey, soy, casein, and mixed plant powders.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} The concentrate evidence is two anonymized commercial pea protein concentrates, bought from online shops and analyzed beside rice and soybean concentrates in the same paper.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} A third form in the table is garden pea fruit, oven-dried, from farms in South Cairo and Giza, which is the pea pod’s seed tissue as a vegetable and not a separated protein.^{4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} Frozen boiled green peas in the US Total Diet Study, and Canadian field pea seed in a 2009 grain baseline, are cited as other materials and are not rows of this powder.^{7Gawalko E, Garrett RG, Warkentin T, Wang N, Richter A · 2009Trace elements in Canadian field peas: a grain safety assurance perspectiveFood Additives and Contaminants: Part ARead source →8U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →}

An isolate is a higher-protein powder than a concentrate, but these studies do not print a protein percentage for the packages they tested, so the page keeps the authors’ own names. A retail powder can also contain flavor, sweetener, or another protein, and the Irish paper identifies the two pea products as pea rather than as a named blend.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} Plant powders that list pea together with rice or seeds are blends, and a metal in the blend cannot be assigned to the pea fraction. Dry-weight, as-sold, and unstated results stay in separate comparisons, and this page does not apply a moisture conversion. Transferring a whole-pea concentration onto an isolate, or an isolate concentration onto frozen peas, would treat different foods as one food.

Heavy metal contamination profile of pea protein

The table lists every extracted result for this page: the Irish pea powders, the two pea concentrates, and the Egyptian garden pea fruit means. On the Irish powders as sold, cadmium was 40.6 µg/kg in one package and 15.4 µg/kg in the other, and lead was 22.2 and 22.5 µg/kg.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} Total mercury was 4.3 µg/kg and below 0.2 µg/kg, total chromium was 289.2 and 210.7 µg/kg, and total tin was 26.7 and 329.7 µg/kg, the last of those being the highest tin the study reported in any powder.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} The concentrate table, printed in a ppb block, gives nickel 585.49 ± 47.94 and 268.27 ± 35.21 and total chromium 78.97 ± 11.24 and 114.11 ± 31.83, with cadmium and lead marked not detected.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} The footnotes give detection limits below 0.015 and below 0.026 without restating the unit, so those non-detects are not converted here into a food concentration of zero.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →}

Garden pea fruit, dry weight, is the other block in the table, and it is labeled as fruit so it is not read as a powder.^{4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} Unpolluted-site fruit means were 8.9 mg/kg lead, 2.6 mg/kg cadmium, 0.03 mg/kg arsenic, 0.9 mg/kg chromium, and 0.9 mg/kg nickel.^{4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} Polluted-site fruit means were 121.0 mg/kg lead, 1,025.0 mg/kg cadmium, 0.1 mg/kg arsenic, 19.8 mg/kg chromium, and 24.7 mg/kg nickel.^{4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} Those fruit values are total metals on a dry-weight basis after oven drying, arsenic is not speciated, and the polluted farms received industrial and municipal waste. Few of these powder rows can be rated against an HMI reference, because a reference needs at least four compatible medians or sample values for the same form and basis, and the method sentence is not repeated under every metal.

How metals reach pea protein

Cadmium and lead reach peas from the soil and from dust or waste deposited on the crop, and the element remains in the tissue because cooking and drying do not destroy it.^{9Schaefer HR, Dennis S, Fitzpatrick S · 2020Cadmium: Mitigation strategies to reduce dietary exposureJournal of Food ScienceRead source →} A review by FDA scientists describes diet as the main cadmium exposure for people who are not exposed at work and do not smoke, and it identifies soil pH, cultivar, and fertilizer choice as levers on how much the plant takes up.^{9Schaefer HR, Dennis S, Fitzpatrick S · 2020Cadmium: Mitigation strategies to reduce dietary exposureJournal of Food ScienceRead source →} That review’s highest mean foods in the US Total Diet Study were not peas, which is a reminder that a concentrated protein ingredient and a boiled vegetable are different exposure questions.^{9Schaefer HR, Dennis S, Fitzpatrick S · 2020Cadmium: Mitigation strategies to reduce dietary exposureJournal of Food ScienceRead source →} Field pea is a pulse, and pulses are known to take cadmium up from soil, but the size of that uptake is a property of the soil, the variety, and the season, not a single concentration for every origin. No powder study in this library paired the metal in the seed with the metal in the isolate made from that seed, so the pathway into the powder is inferred from the crop and from the process, not measured end to end.

The direct crop comparison on this page is garden pea grown in South Cairo and Giza in the winter of 2017.^{4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} Fruit from farms that received waste from cement, iron and steel, brick, and fertilizer works contained much more lead, cadmium, chromium, and nickel than fruit from the study’s unpolluted farms.^{4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} The unpolluted fruit was not a clean commercial baseline either: 2.6 mg/kg cadmium and 8.9 mg/kg lead, dry weight, are far above the Irish retail powders.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} The authors report bioaccumulation factors above 1 for several metals at the polluted sites, which means the plant tissues held more metal than the soil measurement they used, but that factor is for those sites and not a universal pea constant.^{4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} Industrial fruit and a retail isolate answer different questions, and the fruit series is here to show how strongly site can move the crop, not to describe protein sold for food manufacture.

Which forms and regions measured lower

Inside the Irish survey, using one method and one purchase market, the two pea powders are not the high end for every metal.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} Pea cadmium was 15.4 and 40.6 µg/kg, soy was 20.7 and 23.4 µg/kg, mixed plant was 45.1 and 58.1 µg/kg, and the 27 whey powders ran from below 0.61 to 23.2 µg/kg.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} Pea lead was 22.2 and 22.5 µg/kg, while whey lead ran from 0.8 to 88.4 µg/kg and one mixed plant powder was 49.5 µg/kg, so the highest lead package in that study was whey.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} The highest total mercury was 18.4 µg/kg in a mixed plant powder, against 4.3 µg/kg and below 0.2 µg/kg in the pea powders.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} Two pea packages cannot rank a category, and they do not identify a growing region, because the paper records where the powders were bought and not where the crop was grown.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →}

The concentrate paper allows a within-study look at pea versus rice protein, still with only two products of each and with the mineral basis unstated.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} Both pea concentrates were not detected for lead, while one rice concentrate contained 175.40 ppb lead and the other was not detected.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} Nickel overlapped: pea 268.27 and 585.49 ppb, rice 240.22 and 604.54 ppb, so neither protein was uniformly higher.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} Total chromium was lower in the pea concentrates (78.97 and 114.11 ppb) than in the rice concentrates (208.98 and 627.11 ppb) in that small set.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} Hungary adds a different comparison: plant powders that included pea with rice or seeds were not detected for arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and lead, but the detection limits were not printed, and aluminum was higher in the plant powders than in most whey powders.^{10Horváth IL, Kajner G, Galbács G, Csupor D · 2025Analysis of heavy metal content in protein powders available on the Hungarian market: a reassuring snapshot, but not a reassuring quality guaranteeJournal of Nutritional Science 14: e49, 1-7Read source →}

A Canada, China, and European Union ranking of pea protein isolate is not supported by the measurements in hand. The Canadian Grain Commission baseline of field pea seed reports, in its abstract, a mean cadmium of 0.023 mg/kg, with arsenic and lead below 0.050 mg/kg and mercury below 0.002 mg/kg, and the full sample table was not available.^{7Gawalko E, Garrett RG, Warkentin T, Wang N, Richter A · 2009Trace elements in Canadian field peas: a grain safety assurance perspectiveFood Additives and Contaminants: Part ARead source →} That abstract describes whole seed, not an isolate, and it does not give the number of samples or the years, so it is not an occurrence row and not a sourcing preference.^{7Gawalko E, Garrett RG, Warkentin T, Wang N, Richter A · 2009Trace elements in Canadian field peas: a grain safety assurance perspectiveFood Additives and Contaminants: Part ARead source →} No eligible study here measured pea protein isolate grown in China, or separated European-grown isolate from European retail of unknown origin. Until origin is printed with the lot, the lowest observed package in one shop is only the lowest package in that shop.

Processing, cooking and preparation

Separating protein from pea removes starch and fiber and dries what remains, which can raise the metal concentration per kilogram if the metal stays with the protein and the discarded fraction held less. That is a mass-balance expectation, not a result from these papers, because none of them analyzed the seed, the isolate, and the side streams from the same lot. The European cadmium table is the regulatory trace of that expectation: pulses other than proteins from pulses are 0.040 mg/kg, and proteins from pulses are 0.10 mg/kg.^{3European Commission · 2021Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 of 10 August 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union (OJ L 288, 11.8.2021, p. 13–18)Read source →} The protein maximum is 2.5 times the pulse maximum, which is legal room for a more concentrated ingredient, not a measured yield from a factory trial. The Irish pea powders at 15.4 and 40.6 µg/kg cadmium sit under the 100 µg/kg protein row, and that comparison is two packages, not a compliance rate.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →3European Commission · 2021Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 of 10 August 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union (OJ L 288, 11.8.2021, p. 13–18)Read source →}

Wet fractionation, which solubilizes protein and then precipitates it, and dry fractionation, which separates by air classification, can move minerals differently, and this library does not contain a head-to-head metal balance for pea. Heat does not destroy lead, cadmium, arsenic, or mercury, so roasting or cooking changes a concentration only by moving water or by parting a fraction that carries the metal.^{9Schaefer HR, Dennis S, Fitzpatrick S · 2020Cadmium: Mitigation strategies to reduce dietary exposureJournal of Food ScienceRead source →} Drying a wet vegetable raises the concentration per kilogram without adding metal, which is one reason a dry powder and a boiled pea are not compared by the raw number. The Egyptian fruit was oven-dried before analysis, so its milligrams per kilogram are dry weight and would look lower on a fresh pea that is mostly water.^{4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} A process claim that an isolate step removes cadmium needs the before and after on the same lot, with the basis and the yield stated, and that pair is not in these studies.

Mitigation for pea protein

No study in this library measured a treatment that lowered lead, cadmium, arsenic, or mercury in pea protein and reported the size of that change. The crop literature points upstream: soil pH, cultivar, and fertilizer choice change how much cadmium a plant takes up, which is the step that keeps the metal out of the seed.^{9Schaefer HR, Dennis S, Fitzpatrick S · 2020Cadmium: Mitigation strategies to reduce dietary exposureJournal of Food ScienceRead source →} Those levers were not tested on the retail powders or the concentrates reviewed here, so they are a research direction and not a quantified benefit for this ingredient.^{9Schaefer HR, Dennis S, Fitzpatrick S · 2020Cadmium: Mitigation strategies to reduce dietary exposureJournal of Food ScienceRead source →} The Egyptian contrast shows the other side of siting, because fruit beside cement, iron, and fertilizer works held far more metal than the study’s other farms.^{4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} Choosing a growing area away from that kind of waste is supported as a difference in that study, and it is not a universal map of clean regions for protein isolate.

Once the powder is made, the verifiable control in this evidence is lot testing against the maximum that applies to the legal category of the product. A specification sheet that repeats a target, without a method and a result for the lot, does not show what the lot contains. Washing or cooking advice drawn from vegetables does not transfer to a dry protein powder that has already been milled and dried. Blending pea with a lower-metal protein would change the blend, and it would not change the pea fraction, and this page does not have a measured dilution trial. The absence of a measured removal step is recorded as a gap, not as evidence that no control exists in the factory.

No study in this library has yet measured a way to lower heavy metals in pea protein; the studies here compare contaminated and ordinary growing settings, and lot testing against the applicable limit remains the verifiable check.

Trade-offs and limits of controls

Metals do not move together, so a lot that is lower in lead can be higher in cadmium, nickel, or chromium. In the Irish set the highest lead powder was whey, while the highest cadmium powders were mixed plant, and the pea powders were mid-pack for lead and higher than most whey for cadmium.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} In the concentrate set, pea was the lower total chromium pair and not a lower nickel pair, and one rice concentrate carried detected lead while the pea concentrates did not.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} A blend that looks low in one metal can still carry another metal from rice, cocoa, or a flavor ingredient, and the pea share of that blend is not identified. Avoiding an industrial waste site lowered fruit metals in one Egyptian study, and that choice is not a measured cost, yield, or protein-quality result.^{4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →}

Testing pea protein for metals

The powders in the Irish study were microwave-digested and measured by sector-field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, with results reported per kilogram of powder as sold.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} The concentrates were microwave-digested in nitric acid and measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and the paper does not state a dry-weight or as-sold basis for the mineral block.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} A lot report that a buyer can use names the form, the basis, the analyte, the method, the result, and the quantification limit. For a 100 µg/kg cadmium maximum, a quantification limit of a few micrograms per kilogram can show the distance to the maximum, and a limit of 200 µg/kg cannot.^{3European Commission · 2021Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 of 10 August 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union (OJ L 288, 11.8.2021, p. 13–18)Read source →} Total chromium is not hexavalent chromium, and total arsenic is not inorganic arsenic, unless the method speciates them.

The concentrate footnotes print detection limits below 0.015 and below 0.026 under the ppb heading and do not repeat the unit, so this page does not treat 0.015 µg/kg as a demonstrated food limit of quantification.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} The Hungarian plant powders were below detection for arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and lead, and the paper does not print those detection limits, so the non-detect cannot be placed on a number line.^{10Horváth IL, Kajner G, Galbács G, Csupor D · 2025Analysis of heavy metal content in protein powders available on the Hungarian market: a reassuring snapshot, but not a reassuring quality guaranteeJournal of Nutritional Science 14: e49, 1-7Read source →} Arsenic was not in the Irish method at all, which matters if the product is a pea and rice blend, because rice is the ingredient that usually drives inorganic arsenic. A single composite or a single package is not a year’s production, and the Irish design is one analysis per product.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} Ask for the lot identity on the certificate, the digestion, the basis, and the limit of quantification, and do not accept a target copied from a sales specification as if it were a result.

Buying and verifying pea protein

The cadmium row that names proteins from pulses is 0.10 mg/kg, which is 100 µg/kg, in the European amendment that created that split.^{3European Commission · 2021Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 of 10 August 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union (OJ L 288, 11.8.2021, p. 13–18)Read source →} Pulses other than proteins from pulses are 0.040 mg/kg, which is 40 µg/kg, and that lower row is the seed and not the protein ingredient.^{3European Commission · 2021Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 of 10 August 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union (OJ L 288, 11.8.2021, p. 13–18)Read source →} Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 is the instrument now in force for contaminant maxima, and its food-supplement row sets 1.0 mg/kg cadmium, 1,000 µg/kg, for supplements other than the seaweed and bivalve row.^{5European Commission · 2023Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 of 25 April 2023 on maximum levels for certain contaminants in food and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006Official Journal of the European UnionRead source →} A pea protein ingredient in a food is not automatically a food supplement, so the buyer has to know which legal category the lot is placed on the market under. Nickel maxima added in 2024 set 4.0 mg/kg for pulses except dry beans and dry lupins, applying from 1 July 2025, and there is no separate nickel row for proteins from pulses.^{6European Commission · 2024Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/1987 of 30 July 2024 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/915 as regards maximum levels of nickel in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union, L series, 2024/1987 (31.7.2024)Read source →}

Processed foods that are not themselves a listed category are handled by the concentration and dilution rules of the contaminants regulation, not by inventing a new number.^{6European Commission · 2024Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/1987 of 30 July 2024 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/915 as regards maximum levels of nickel in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union, L series, 2024/1987 (31.7.2024)Read source →} The nickel measured in the two pea concentrates, about 268 to 585 µg/kg, is numerically below 4,000 µg/kg, and that is not a compliance test, because the basis is unstated and the legal row is the pulse.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →6European Commission · 2024Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/1987 of 30 July 2024 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/915 as regards maximum levels of nickel in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union, L series, 2024/1987 (31.7.2024)Read source →} This page did not verify a United States maximum written for pea protein or for proteins from pulses, and the Total Diet Study figures for boiled peas are monitoring results, not limits.^{8U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →} A purchasing specification should name lead, cadmium, total arsenic, inorganic arsenic when rice is in the formula, total mercury, and nickel, each with a quantification limit below the maximum that applies. Origin language on a contract is only as good as the lot record that ties the powder to a harvest region, which these retail studies do not provide.

Exposure from pea protein

The Irish study estimated hazard indexes for a 70 kg adult at one serving and at three servings a day, using the authors’ reference doses.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} At one serving a day, no powder in the study had a hazard index above 1.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} At three servings a day, ten powders did, including one of the two pea powders, a mixed plant powder, a casein powder, and several whey powders.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} The same paper’s cadmium cancer-risk screen at three servings a day included that pea powder among four products the authors still described as within a range they called acceptable, while warning that high intake over a lifetime could raise risk.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} Those calculations are the authors’ model for the packages they bought, and they are not an intake for a child, a different serving size, or a different product.

Boiled frozen green peas in the US Total Diet Study are a useful contrast because they are the vegetable, mostly water, eaten as a side dish.^{8U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →} Across three composites, cadmium was detected in two, with a reported maximum of 3.2 µg/kg and a reporting limit of 1 µg/kg.^{8U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →} Lead was not detected at a reporting limit of 4 µg/kg, total mercury was not detected at 1 µg/kg, and total arsenic was not detected at 3 µg/kg.^{8U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2022FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsFDA Total Diet StudyRead source →} A 30 gram scoop of dry protein is not a serving of boiled peas, so those non-detects do not describe the powder. Concentration in the food and intake by a person remain separate: this page does not multiply a powder result by a consumption survey to produce a population dose.

The labeled scoop masses in the Irish table are 30 g for pea sample 2 and 10 g for pea sample 12.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} At those scoops, sample 2 carries 0.666 µg lead and 1.218 µg cadmium, and sample 12 carries 0.225 µg lead and 0.154 µg cadmium.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →} California’s oral maximum allowable dose level for lead, for reproductive toxicity, is 0.5 µg/day, so one 30 g scoop of either pea powder is above that daily level and the labeled 10 g scoop of sample 12 is not.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →11California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment · Not reportedLead and Lead Compounds — Proposition 65 Chemical ListingCalifornia Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Proposition 65 ListingsRead source →} The oral cadmium level is 4.1 µg/day, and both labeled scoops are below it (1.218 µg and 0.154 µg).^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →12California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Reproductive and Cancer Hazard Assessment Section · 2001Proposition 65 Maximum Allowable Daily Level (MADL) for Reproductive Toxicity for Cadmium (Oral Route)California Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Health Hazard AssessmentRead source →} Dividing those daily levels by 0.030 kg gives about 16.7 µg/kg lead and about 137 µg/kg cadmium as the powder concentrations at which one 30 g scoop equals the daily level, which is a scoop check and not a food maximum or a full-day diet.^{11California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment · Not reportedLead and Lead Compounds — Proposition 65 Chemical ListingCalifornia Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Proposition 65 ListingsRead source →12California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Reproductive and Cancer Hazard Assessment Section · 2001Proposition 65 Maximum Allowable Daily Level (MADL) for Reproductive Toxicity for Cadmium (Oral Route)California Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Health Hazard AssessmentRead source →}

Evidence review and remaining gaps

The occurrence rows come from the Irish retail survey, the concentrate mineral table, and the Egyptian fruit table, each read for the pea material the paper actually measured. Plant-protein blends, a unit-unresolved survey of vegan powders, and an Indian labeling study that pooled pea with soy were not entered as pea protein concentrations, because the pea fraction or the unit could not be defended. Industry market reports that are not peer-reviewed and do not publish a concentration table were not used as numbers. Supplier notices and company certificates of analysis were excluded, including any notice written for a single manufacturer’s pea protein. The 2009 Canadian field-pea article remains closed: the abstract means are cited with that limit, and they are not rows.^{7Gawalko E, Garrett RG, Warkentin T, Wang N, Richter A · 2009Trace elements in Canadian field peas: a grain safety assurance perspectiveFood Additives and Contaminants: Part ARead source →}

What is still missing is a multi-lot survey of pea protein isolate with growing origin, basis, and quantification limits for lead, cadmium, inorganic arsenic, and total mercury. A paired seed and isolate from the same lots would show whether protein separation concentrates cadmium, which the legal 40 versus 100 µg/kg split only allows for and does not measure.^{3European Commission · 2021Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 of 10 August 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union (OJ L 288, 11.8.2021, p. 13–18)Read source →} Two Irish packages and two concentrates are enough to show the ingredient is not free of these elements, and they are not enough for a rated reference or a regional ranking. The Egyptian fruit series is strong evidence about a polluted agricultural district and weak evidence about commercial protein. Corrections to a misread table, a retrieved Canadian full text, or a new origin-linked survey should reopen the affected paragraphs.

References identify the sources used in these answers. The Sources index preserves additional discovery links; inclusion there does not mean a source has been reviewed for this assessment. Corrections, completed searches, new direct evidence and changes in requirements should reopen the relevant answer.

Pea protein FAQs

What remains uncertain

Arsenic was not measured in the retail powders or the concentrates, and the fruit arsenic result is total arsenic on dry garden pea, not inorganic arsenic in a powder.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →4Galal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, Eid EM · 2021Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksPLoS ONERead source →} The concentrate non-detects for cadmium and lead cannot be read as a food concentration until the footnote unit is restated.^{2Rocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, Isabel Revilla · 2025The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesFoodsRead source →} Growing origin is not on the Irish or Spanish packages, and the Canadian seed baseline is an abstract without its sample table.^{1Ring G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, Furey A · 2021Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersMolecules 2021, 26, 4347Read source →7Gawalko E, Garrett RG, Warkentin T, Wang N, Richter A · 2009Trace elements in Canadian field peas: a grain safety assurance perspectiveFood Additives and Contaminants: Part ARead source →} No paired seed and isolate measurement shows whether protein separation concentrates cadmium, so the European 40 versus 100 µg/kg split is a legal allowance and not a process factor.^{3European Commission · 2021Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 of 10 August 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in certain foodstuffsOfficial Journal of the European Union (OJ L 288, 11.8.2021, p. 13–18)Read source →} Two retail packages, two concentrates, and one industrial fruit comparison are not a rated reference and not a ranking of Canada, China, or the European Union.

References

Works cited on this page, in citation-number order. See Sources for this page’s source inventory. Each title links to a source record with bibliographic details, reported findings, and document provenance.

1. Development, Validation and Application of an ICP-SFMS Method for the Determination of Metals in Protein Powder Samples, Sourced in Ireland, with Risk Assessment for Irish ConsumersRing G, Sheehan A, Lehane M, and Furey A · Molecules 2021, 26, 4347 · 2021 · doi.org/10.3390/molecules26144347Peer-reviewed
2. The Influence of the Nutritional and Mineral Composition of Vegetable Protein Concentrates on Their Functional PropertiesRocio Lopez-Calabozo, Ivan Martinez-Martin, Marta Rodriguez-Fernandez, Yamina Absi, Ana Maria Vivar-Quintana, and Isabel Revilla · Foods · 2025 · doi.org/10.3390/foods14030509Peer-reviewed
3. Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 of 10 August 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in certain foodstuffsEuropean Commission · Official Journal of the European Union (OJ L 288, 11.8.2021, p. 13–18) · 2021 · eur-lex.europa.euRegulation
4. Heavy metals uptake by the global economic crop (Pisum sativum L.) grown in contaminated soils and its associated health risksGalal TM, Hassan LM, Ahmed DA, Alamri SAM, Alrumman SA, and Eid EM · PLoS ONE · 2021 · doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252229Peer-reviewed
5. Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 of 25 April 2023 on maximum levels for certain contaminants in food and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006European Commission · Official Journal of the European Union · 2023 · eur-lex.europa.euRegulation
6. Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/1987 of 30 July 2024 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/915 as regards maximum levels of nickel in certain foodstuffsEuropean Commission · Official Journal of the European Union, L series, 2024/1987 (31.7.2024) · 2024 · data.europa.euRegulation
7. Trace elements in Canadian field peas: a grain safety assurance perspectiveGawalko E, Garrett RG, Warkentin T, Wang N, and Richter A · Food Additives and Contaminants: Part A · 2009 · doi.org/10.1080/02652030902894389Peer-reviewed
8. FY2018-FY2020 TDS Elements Analytical ResultsU.S. Food and Drug Administration · FDA Total Diet Study · 2022 · www.fda.govDataset
9. Cadmium: Mitigation strategies to reduce dietary exposureSchaefer HR, Dennis S, and Fitzpatrick S · Journal of Food Science · 2020 · doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.14997Review
10. Analysis of heavy metal content in protein powders available on the Hungarian market: a reassuring snapshot, but not a reassuring quality guaranteeHorváth IL, Kajner G, Galbács G, and Csupor D · Journal of Nutritional Science 14: e49, 1-7 · 2025 · doi.org/10.1017/jns.2025.10024Peer-reviewed
11. Lead and Lead Compounds — Proposition 65 Chemical ListingCalifornia Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment · oehha.ca.govGovernment
12. Proposition 65 Maximum Allowable Daily Level (MADL) for Reproductive Toxicity for Cadmium (Oral Route)California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Reproductive and Cancer Hazard Assessment Section · California Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment · 2001 · oehha.ca.govGovernment

Sources

Browse Pea protein Sources for sources cited on this page and additional discovery candidates. The searchable index distinguishes verified citation use from discovery relationships whose relevance has not been established.

Update history

3 November 2026: Rebuilt from every pea protein record in the library: 3 occurrence sources, references by form and basis, same-study contrasts, verified limits.