What's Actually in Your Protein Powder? How to Read a Label in a Minute

One of the answers that comes up again and again in the little quiz on our website is some version of "my current powder has too many ingredients", and every time I read it I recognise a bit of myself in it. When I was feeling unwell on regular whey, I had no real idea what half the words on the back of the pack meant, and I didn't think to question them, because I assumed that if something was sold on a big shelf with a big brand on the front it must be fine. If that sounds familiar, you're definitely not alone, and it isn't a personal failing either... protein labels are simply not written to be read quickly.

So I did what I always do. I went to the research, and I spent a lot of evenings working out what each of those ingredients was actually doing in there. What I found was that most of them aren't sinister at all, they're there for understandable reasons like texture, shelf life, sweetness and cost, but they do add up, and some people find that their body or their taste buds prefer a much shorter list. This post is the quick version of everything I learned, so that you can turn any pack round and know what you're looking at within about a minute.

Start with the back, not the front

The front of a protein pack is there to sell to you, which is fair enough, but the back is where the honest information lives. In the UK, food law says ingredients have to be listed in descending order by weight [1], which means the first ingredient is the one there's most of, and everything after it is there in smaller and smaller amounts.

The first thing I look for is the protein source itself, and I want it to be the very first word. You'll usually see whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate, a "protein blend" (which can mean several sources mixed together in proportions you aren't told), or a plant protein such as pea or rice. After that, I simply count. A long list isn't automatically a bad thing, however once it runs well past a handful of items it's worth asking what each one is there to do, and whether you actually want it in your daily shake.

The four things worth spotting

When you read enough labels, you start to notice that most of the extras fall into four groups, and once you can recognise them the list stops feeling like a foreign language.

1. Gums and thickeners. Look for xanthan gum, guar gum, carrageenan, cellulose gum or acacia gum. They're added to make a shake feel thicker and creamier in your mouth, and to stop it separating in the bottle. Plenty of people have them every day without noticing anything, although some people find they simply don't get on with them, which is a big part of why ingredient-conscious shoppers start looking for powders without them.
2. Sweeteners. Sucralose, acesulfame K, aspartame, steviol glycosides, and sugar alcohols such as erythritol, xylitol and maltitol are the common ones. Brands often use a blend of two or three, because each one has its own aftertaste and mixing them can hide it. Sugar alcohols in larger amounts are known to cause digestive discomfort in some people, which is why UK law requires foods with more than 10% added polyols to carry the line "excessive consumption may produce laxative effects" [1].
3. Flavourings. This is the one that surprised me most. The word "flavouring" on its own tells you very little about where the taste actually came from, and "natural flavouring" can be made from a whole range of natural sources rather than the thing pictured on the front. A vanilla shake, for example, doesn't necessarily contain any vanilla at all.
4. Fillers and extras. Maltodextrin, skimmed milk powder, creamers, added fibres like inulin, anti-caking agents and added amino acids all turn up here. Some are there to bulk the powder out or make it mix more easily, and some, like added glycine or taurine, can quietly raise the protein figure on the label without adding the kind of protein most of us are paying for.

None of these ingredients makes a powder "bad" on its own, and I'd never want anyone to feel guilty about what's in their cupboard. It's more that once you know what each group does, you get to choose, rather than having the choice made for you.

Then check how much of each serving is protein

The second quick check is the nutrition panel, and specifically the protein per serving compared with the size of the serving. If a serving weighs 30g and gives you 20g of protein, then a third of what you're spooning into your shaker is something other than protein, and it's worth knowing what that something is.

For Kultra, a serving is two level scoops, which weighs 33g and gives you 26g of protein, so just under 80% of each serving is protein. I'm not sharing that to show off, but because it's a simple sum anyone can do on any pack, and it tells you a lot about how much room has been left for everything else. The rest of a Kultra serving isn't added extras, by the way, it's the naturally occurring carbohydrate, fat, minerals and moisture that come with whey concentrate itself.

What's in a 33g serving of Kultra

By weight, from our ingredient specification

■ Goat whey 31.92g (96.7%)   ■ Vanilla bean 1g (3.0%)   ■ Stevia leaf 0.08g (0.24%)

Protein per 33g serving26g

What I chose for Kultra, and why

When I started building Kultra, the ingredients list was the thing I was most stubborn about, because it was the thing I'd wished someone had been honest with me about years earlier. There are three ingredients in it: goat whey protein concentrate, natural vanilla bean and stevia leaf. That's the whole list, so there are no gums, no sweetener blends, no fillers and no flavourings, and you can see the tiny flecks of vanilla bean in the powder itself. I wrote more about how it came about in my story here, and there's a fuller explanation of our approach on the clean protein page.

I want to be honest about the trade-offs too, because a short list does change things. Without gums, Kultra won't have the thick, milkshake texture that some powders are designed to have, so it's at its best shaken well with cold water or milk. It also isn't lactose free: there's about 1.5g of naturally occurring lactose per serving, and because it contains milk it isn't suitable for anyone with a milk allergy. If you've been diagnosed with lactose intolerance, please speak to your GP first. Every production batch is released against a certificate of analysis covering composition and microbiology, which was something I insisted on from the very beginning, because a short list only means something if you can trust what's in the pouch.

Your one-minute label check

Next time you're standing in an aisle or scrolling a product page, it really can be this quick:

1. Is protein the first ingredient?
2. How many ingredients are there, and do you know what each one is for?
3. Can you spot any gums, sweeteners, flavourings or fillers, and are you happy with them?
4. How much of each serving is protein, compared with the serving size?

If you've ever felt quietly confused, or a little bit fobbed off, by the back of a protein pack, I hope this makes it feel a lot less daunting. You deserve to know what you're putting into your body every single day, and once you start reading labels this way, you'll find it's very hard to stop. If you'd like to try a powder with a list you can read in five seconds, you can find Kultra here, and there's a £10 sample of three servings, with the £10 coming back to you as store credit towards a full pouch.

-N 🤍

FAQ

Why do protein powders contain gums?

Gums such as xanthan and guar are added to make shakes thicker and creamier and to stop them separating. They're widely used and many people have them without noticing anything, but some people prefer to avoid them.

What does "natural flavouring" mean on a protein label?

It means the flavour comes from a natural source, but not necessarily the ingredient pictured on the pack. A vanilla powder with "natural flavouring" may not contain any vanilla.

How do I work out how much of a serving is protein?

Divide the grams of protein by the serving size in grams. Kultra gives 26g of protein in a 33g serving (two level scoops), which is just under 80%.

What are the three ingredients in Kultra?

Goat whey protein concentrate, natural vanilla bean and stevia leaf. There are no gums, sweetener blends, fillers or flavourings.

Is Kultra lactose free?

No. It has about 1.5g of naturally occurring lactose per serving and contains milk, so it isn't suitable for anyone with a milk allergy. If you have lactose intolerance, speak to your GP first.

References

1. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on food information to consumers, as retained in UK law: Article 18 (ingredients in descending order of weight) and Annex III (polyol warning). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2011/1169/contents
2. Kultra ingredient and product specification (serving composition, 26g protein per 33g serving).