Data table

Protein Powders — Checked Against Third-Party Anti-Doping Registries

20 of 27 best-selling protein powders checked here carry NSF Certified for Sport and/or Informed Choice certification — the rest, including several Amazon best-sellers, don't appear in either registry for their flagship SKU.

27 rows · Updated 2026-07-19 · Refreshed on model changes · Click a column to sort

"Third-party tested" is a marketing phrase; NSF Certified for Sport and Informed Sport/Informed Choice are the actual registries that phrase is supposed to point to. Each checks finished supplements for banned substances (steroids, stimulants, masking agents) and label-claim accuracy — not the same thing as basic GMP manufacturing compliance, which nearly every brand claims regardless. This table looks up each manufacturer's specific protein-powder SKU in the live NSF Certified for Sport listing and the Informed Choice certified-products grid (Informed Sport itself was bot-walled at curation time — see provenance), rather than trusting a badge on a product page, and records protein content, serving size, and price per serving alongside the certification result.

NSF Certified for Sport Protein Powders Protein Powders With Any Third-Party Certification Found Highest Protein-Density Powders

		whey concentrate/isolate/blend, casein, or plant		'Informed Choice' = confirmed on that registry's own listing (Informed Sport itself was unreachable, see provenance); 'none found' = not located in either registry search	True if either certifiedNsfSport is true or certifiedInformed is not "none found"			proteinPerServingG ÷ servingSizeG, rounded — a rough purity signal, not a lab assay	True if proteinType is a plant protein (pea, rice, etc.) rather than whey/casein/collagen	Manufacturer-listed price for the container size in basis, at curation time — not a live price feed
Optimum Nutrition	Gold Standard 100% Whey	whey concentrate/isolate blend	✓	Informed Choice (parent company Glanbia's ON line listed)	✓	24 g	31 g	77 %	—	$44.99	$1.1
Optimum Nutrition	Gold Standard 100% Isolate	whey isolate	—	Informed Choice ("ON Isolate (USA)")	✓	25 g	30 g	83 %	—	$54.99	$1.9
Muscle Milk (PepsiCo)	Genuine Protein Powder	whey/casein blend (Non Dairy formula also NSF-listed)	✓	none found	✓	32 g	71 g	45 %	—	$34.99	$1.75
Garden of Life	Sport Certified Grass Fed Whey	whey isolate/concentrate blend, grass-fed	✓	Informed Choice ("Sport Certified Grass Fed Whey")	✓	24 g	34 g	71 %	—	$39.99	$2.35
Garden of Life	Organic Plant-Based Performance Protein	plant (pea/organic sprout blend)	✓	none found	✓	30 g	43 g	70 %	✓	$44.99	$2.65
Thorne	Whey Protein Isolate	whey isolate	✓	none found	✓	21 g	27 g	78 %	—	$59	$2.3
Thorne	Plant Protein	plant (pea)	✓	none found	✓	21 g	33 g	64 %	✓	$54	$2.25
Klean Athlete (Douglas Labs)	Klean Isolate	whey isolate	✓	none found	✓	20 g	26 g	77 %	—	$54	$2.7
Klean Athlete (Douglas Labs)	Klean Casein	casein	✓	none found	✓	24 g	33 g	73 %	—	$58	$2.9
Momentous	Essential Grass Fed-Whey Protein	whey, grass-fed	✓	none found	✓	20 g	25 g	80 %	—	$65	$2.6
Momentous	Plant Protein	plant (pea/rice blend)	✓	none found	✓	20 g	30 g	67 %	✓	$65	$2.6
Transparent Labs	100% Grass-Fed Whey Protein Isolate	whey isolate, grass-fed	✓	none found (Transparent Labs Mass Gainer, Pump, Collagen, PurCaf found on Informed Choice — not this SKU)	✓	28 g	34 g	82 %	—	$64.99	$2.3
Bare Performance Nutrition	Whey Protein Isolate	whey isolate	✓	none found	✓	25 g	32 g	78 %	—	$54.99	$2.2
Bare Performance Nutrition	Vegan Protein	plant (pea/rice blend)	✓	none found	✓	22 g	34 g	65 %	✓	$54.99	$2.2
1st Phorm	Phormula-1 Clear Protein Powder	whey/collagen hydrolysate (clear, juice-like format)	✓	none found	✓	20 g	24 g	83 %	—	$59.99	$2.85
Ladder (LeBron James/Arnold Schwarzenegger brand)	Premium Whey Protein	whey isolate/concentrate blend	✓	none found	✓	25 g	33 g	76 %	—	$69.99	$3.5
Vega	Sport Premium Protein	plant (pea/pumpkin seed/sunflower seed blend)	✓	Informed Choice ("Performance Protein + Recovery" listed, different SKU name)	✓	30 g	46 g	65 %	✓	$44.99	$2.65
Dymatize	ISO100 Hydrolyzed Whey Protein Isolate	whey isolate, hydrolyzed	—	Informed Choice ("ISO100 Hydrolyzed Protein Powder (USA)")	✓	25 g	30 g	83 %	—	$54.99	$1.85
GHOST	GHOST Whey Protein	whey concentrate/isolate blend	✓	none found	✓	25 g	33 g	76 %	—	$49.99	$2.15
BulkSupplements	Whey Protein Isolate (unflavored)	whey isolate	—	none found	—	25 g	32 g	78 %	—	$32.96	$0.55
Orgain	Organic Protein Plant-Based Powder	plant (pea/brown rice/chia blend)	—	none found (Orgain Creatine Monohydrate IS on Informed Choice — not this SKU)	—	21 g	46 g	46 %	✓	$34.99	$2.05
Premier Protein	Premier Protein Shake (ready-to-drink)	whey/milk protein blend, RTD (not a powder — included for the Amazon best-seller comparison)	—	none found	—	30 g	325 g	9 %	—	$22.98	$1.15
Vital Proteins	Collagen Peptides (unflavored)	collagen (not a complete/muscle-building protein — included for the Amazon best-seller comparison)	—	none found	—	20 g	20 g	100 %	—	$43	$1.2
Quest Nutrition	Quest Protein Powder	whey isolate/milk protein isolate blend	—	none found	—	23 g	31 g	74 %	—	$34.99	$1.75
Ryse Supplements	Loaded Protein	whey isolate/concentrate blend	—	none found	—	25 g	34 g	74 %	—	$54.99	$1.85
Nature's Bounty (Optimum Nutrition's sibling brand under Glanbia — for contrast)	Isopure Zero Carb	whey isolate	—	none found	—	25 g	31 g	81 %	—	$49.99	$1.65
Dymatize	Elite 100% Whey Protein	whey concentrate/isolate blend	—	Informed Choice ("Elite 100% Whey Protein")	✓	25 g	34 g	74 %	—	$44.99	$1.35

Data sources

Certification columns (certifiedNsfSport, certifiedInformed) come from a direct company/product-name search of the NSF Certified for Sport full certified-products listing (nsfsport.com/certified-products) and the Informed Choice certified-products grid (choice.wetestyoutrust.com/ certified-products), both queried 2026-07-19; raw pulls saved under data/sources/nsf-certified-for-sport-full-listing-2026-07-19.html and data/sources/informed-choice-certified-products-2026-07-19.html. Informed Sport (the sister program more commonly cited for elite-athlete banned-substance testing) returned HTTP 403 from both curl and a real Chromium session in this pass (Cloudflare bot check) and could not be queried directly — brands are NOT marked Informed-certified on the strength of Informed Choice alone unless Informed Choice's own listing was the only available signal, and that substitution is noted per row. A "false"/"none" result reflects a name search that returned no matching product listing under the brand/trade names tried in either registry, not a claim that the product has no certification anywhere — some brands may hold certifications under a different registered entity name, or through smaller regional programs not covered here. Protein-per-serving, serving size, and price figures come from each brand's own current product/label page (manufacturer nutrition-facts panel), not the registries, and are noted as such in basis; these are standard published label facts, not independently lab-verified.