How much lead is in your greens powder? What the testing actually shows

The bad question is does this greens powder contain lead? FDA says there is no known safe level of exposure to lead, and lead can enter the food supply from environmental sources. A cleaner buyer question is how many mcg per serving, from what lot, tested when, by what lab, and against what benchmark? FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements

A brand can answer that cleanly. Organifi's public Green Juice COA gives serving-level heavy-metal results for one named lot: 1.09 mcg/serving lead, 0.75 mcg/serving arsenic, 0.27 mcg/serving cadmium, and 0.018 mcg/serving mercury. The same COA says the lead result is greater than the California Prop 65 limit and notes that the warning statement is on the label. Organifi Green Juice COA

A brand can also give a less buyer-useful answer. AG1's public certificate shows annual testing for lot 5208010 and pass/fail results against heavy-metal specifications, including lead NMT 0.38 ppm, arsenic NMT 0.76 ppm, cadmium NMT 0.31 ppm, and mercury NMT 0.01 ppm as the limit of detection. That is a testing signal, but it is not the same as publishing the measured mcg/serving number. AG1 Consumer Certificate of Analysis

The clearest public greens-powder example here is Organifi because the COA translates heavy metals into mcg per serving. For Green Juice lot SIGJ19823AM, dated 09-11-23 and expired 08/2025, the public COA reports lead at 1.09 mcg/serving and marks it above the 0.5 mcg/serving specification. Organifi Green Juice COA

That Organifi number does not tell you the lead level in every greens powder. It tells you what one public COA reported for one lot of one product, and it shows why serving-level disclosure matters for a daily powder. Organifi Green Juice COA FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements

AG1's public certificate is useful in a different way. It says the tested lot passed a third-party laboratory heavy-metals panel, with specifications listed in ppm rather than measured mcg per serving. For a buyer, that means the document confirms testing scope and pass/fail status but does not answer the serving-size question by itself, and the listed 01/2026 expiration makes it a disclosure example rather than a current-lot guarantee for this June 2026 review. AG1 Consumer Certificate of Analysis

ConsumerLab's public 2023 release adds category-level evidence. It says ConsumerLab tested spirulina, chlorella, and greens supplements and found several products with amounts of lead unsuitable for regular consumption by children or pregnant women. The public page names products included in the review, but the product-by-product amounts live inside the member review. ConsumerLab greens supplement release

ConsumerLab's AG1 page is worth reading carefully. It says AG1 can potentially contain significant amounts of lead and other heavy metals, but it points readers to the paid review for how much ConsumerLab found. NutriScore cites that public warning without treating a member-only number as public data. ConsumerLab AG1 page

PPM and ppb are concentration units. They matter, but they are not always enough for a person deciding whether to drink one scoop every day. FDA evaluates lead risk by looking at toxicity, exposure, and vulnerable subpopulations, so the serving amount and use pattern matter alongside the concentration. FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements

That is why a buyer-useful COA should report lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury in both concentration terms and micrograms per serving. If a brand only publishes passes our standard, the buyer still has to trust the hidden math. FDA 101 dietary supplements FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements

The serving conversion is especially important for greens powders because serving sizes differ across products. A low ppm number with a large scoop and a higher ppm number with a tiny serving can mean different daily intake numbers. FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements

Be careful with this question because not every benchmark means the same thing. FDA says there is no known safe level of exposure to lead, but it also uses interim reference levels of 2.2 mcg/day for children and 8.8 mcg/day for females of childbearing age when evaluating dietary exposure. FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements

California's Prop 65 warning threshold for lead is much lower than those FDA interim reference levels: the California Attorney General FAQ explains that a product can meet federal composition standards and still need a Prop 65 warning if exposure exceeds 0.5 mcg of lead per day. California Attorney General Prop 65 FAQ

Those numbers are not interchangeable. FDA's interim reference levels are dietary exposure benchmarks used by FDA; Prop 65 is a California warning law; and a brand's internal spec is a company or certification threshold. For a daily greens powder, NutriScore treats them as context, not as a simple safe/unsafe switch. FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements California Attorney General Prop 65 FAQ

If you are pregnant, trying to become pregnant, breastfeeding, or buying for children, vague heavy-metal language should be treated as a fail. FDA says the most serious effects from lead can occur during active brain development, including in utero, infancy, and early childhood, and ConsumerLab's public greens release specifically frames some lead findings as unsuitable for regular consumption by children or pregnant women. FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements ConsumerLab greens supplement release

That does not mean every greens powder is automatically unsafe for every adult. It means a higher-stakes buyer should demand actual recent numbers, not a badge or a customer-service promise. FDA says dietary supplement firms are responsible for safety and labeling, while FDA generally does not approve supplements for safety and effectiveness before sale. FDA 101 dietary supplements

A good COA starts with identity: product name, lot or batch number, manufacturing or expiration date, lab name, and test date. AG1's public certificate names lot 5208010, manufacturing date 01/2025, expiration 01/2026, and says the results apply only to the lot or batch tested. AG1 Consumer Certificate of Analysis

A better COA then gives buyer-readable contaminant numbers. Organifi's public Green Juice COA does this by listing lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury in mcg/serving for lot SIGJ19823AM. Organifi Green Juice COA

The ideal version gives both: ppm or ppb for lab comparison, plus mcg per serving for daily-use math. It also separates lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury instead of hiding them under one heavy metals line. FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements

Brands should publish current finished-product COAs for every meaningful lot, not just a generic testing policy. FDA says it does not approve dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness before sale, so brand-side documentation matters more in this category than it would for an FDA-approved drug. FDA 101 dietary supplements

For greens powders, the minimum public table should show lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury; lot number; date tested; method; lab; ppm or ppb; mcg per serving; and the benchmark used. Anything less leaves buyers guessing. FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements

The best brands should also explain what happens when a lot fails a spec, how old the posted COA is, and whether the posted document is representative annual testing or the actual lot being sold. AG1's certificate explicitly says results apply only to the lot or batch tested, which is the right limitation to disclose. AG1 Consumer Certificate of Analysis

Public testing does not support one universal lead number for all greens powders. It supports a narrower, more useful rule: do not buy a daily greens powder unless the brand can show a recent finished-product heavy-metal test in serving-size terms. FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements

Organifi's public COA shows why this matters: one named Green Juice lot reports 1.09 mcg/serving lead and labels that result above the California Prop 65 limit. AG1's public certificate shows a different kind of disclosure: pass/fail against ppm specs for one lot, but not the exact measured mcg/serving value. Organifi Green Juice COA AG1 Consumer Certificate of Analysis

NutriScore buying rule: third-party tested is the start of the question, not the answer. The answer is a recent lot, a real lab, lead/cadmium/arsenic/mercury, and mcg per serving. FDA 101 dietary supplements FDA lead in food, foodwares, and dietary supplements