Is Your Collagen Contaminated with Heavy Metals?
When it comes to collagen supplements, quality matters—here’s why.
By 2025, the global collagen market is expected to reach nearly $10 billion—far surpassing earlier predictions. As interest in plant-based diets wanes, more people are turning back to the nutrient-rich benefits of animal-based foods, including collagen.
In 2020, the Clean Label Project—a US-based non-profit focused on product safety and transparency—tested 30 of the best-selling collagen supplements. Shockingly, one well-known brand had double the legal limit of a toxic heavy metal under California’s safety guidelines. Four other samples contained lead levels two to three times higher than the state’s threshold. This raised serious concerns about contamination in popular supplements. But here’s the real issue—it’s not collagen itself that’s the problem, but the price we pay for modern, chemical-based farming practices.
Should you be worried about heavy metals in collagen?
Toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and mercury don’t just pass through the body—they build up over time, especially when key mineral deficiencies are present. Even at low concentrations, heavy metals can be highly toxic, leading to degenerative ageing dysfunction or, in younger people, ‘diseases of modernity’ including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, neurodegeneration, chronic inflammation, and allergies.
How do heavy metals get into collagen?
Animals raised in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are often fed grain-based diets contaminated with heavy metals like cadmium, lead, and arsenic—absorbed from synthetic fertilisers or polluted water. As of 2021, there were over 1,000 CAFOs in the UK. Over time, these toxins accumulate in animal tissues, just as mercury does in fish from contaminated seawater. Bovine collagen comes from boiling cow hides, bones, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage, while marine collagen is extracted from fish scales, skin, and bones. If these raw materials contain heavy metals, those contaminants get concentrated in the final product. The only way to guarantee a truly clean collagen supplement? Rigorous testing.
Our collagen is independently tested for heavy metals
We source our Marine Collagen from wild-caught fish and our Bovine Collagen Peptides from grass-fed cows—minimising the risk of contamination right from the start. But that’s not enough for us. Every batch must pass strict safety testing before it even gets close to carrying the Hunter & Gather name. On top of that, we send our collagen to an independent lab for testing, checking for heavy metals, pesticides, and other unwanted nasties.
How to shop for heavy metal-free collagen?
If you’re looking for a high-quality collagen free from contamination, you’re in the right place. But, if you’re reading this from across the globe and can’t get your hands on our award-winning products, then make sure your collagen has been independently tested. Remember, some of the most popular collagens in the US are not clean, so don’t blindly trust a ‘big’ brand name.
References
- Straits Research (2025). Collagen Market Size, Share & Trends by 2033. Straits Research. https://straitsresearch.com/report/collagen-market# (Accessed 29 Jan 2025)
- OCA (2020). The True Content and Faces Behind America’s Best-Selling Collagen. Organic Consumers Association. Link (Accessed 29 Jan 2025)
- Goyer R. A. (1995). Nutrition and metal toxicity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 61(3 Suppl), 646S–650S. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/61.3.646S
- Haidar, Z. et al. (2022). Disease-associated metabolic pathways affected by heavy metals. Toxicology Reports, 10, 554-570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxrep.2023.04.010
- McGrath, S. P. & Zhao, F. J. (2015); Rai, P. K. et al. (2019); Haddad, M. et al. (2023). Studies on heavy metals in soil and crops. Soil Use and Management, 31, 34-45; Environment International, 125, 365-385; Scientific Reports, 13, 4121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.01.067; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18014-0
- Colley, C. & Wasley, A. (2021). UK has more than 1,000 livestock mega-farms, investigation reveals. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/18/uk-has-more-than-1000-livestock-mega-farms-investigation-reveals (Accessed 30 Jan 2025)
- OCA (2020). The True Content and Faces Behind America’s Best-Selling Collagen. Organic Consumers Association. Link (Accessed 29 Jan 2025)
