07/31/2026
Protein powder isn’t tested for protein. It’s tested for nitrogen, and that number is then converted into a protein figure.
Which sounds like a technicality until you realise nitrogen doesn’t only come from protein. Glycine carries nitrogen. So do taurine and creatine. They’re far cheaper than whey or milk protein, and the standard test can’t tell them apart from the real thing. Add enough and the protein number on the label rises without anything useful going into the tub. The industry name for it is amino spiking, and it’s a known enough problem that certification labs run two separate protein scans and subtract one from the other specifically to catch it.
To be clear — creatine is a genuinely good ingredient and pairs perfectly well with a protein routine. The objection isn’t creatine. It’s counting it as protein.
That sits on top of everything else a tub tends to carry: sucralose, acesulfame potassium, maltodextrin, carrageenan, xanthan gum, soy lecithin, silicon dioxide, magnesium stearate, artificial flavors. Sweeteners to cover the taste, gums to fix the texture, flow agents to stop it clumping, bulking agents to fill it out.
We can’t play that game with BUILD, and not because we’re virtuous — because there’s nothing in there to play it with. The whole list is 16,700 mg of bovine collagen peptides, water, apple juice concentrate, citric acid, natural flavors and steviol glycosides. Six things. No proprietary blend, no added free amino acids, nothing to hide a number behind.
We had it independently tested anyway. Protein measured 18.3 g per serving against the 15 g on our label. Heavy metals, pathogens and a twelve-compound adulterant screen all came back not detected.
So the habit worth building costs five seconds in any aisle: turn the tub around and read the ingredient list instead of the number on the front. The number can be engineered. The list can’t.
BUILD is collagen protein, not a complete protein — it’s built to sit alongside adequate dietary protein and resistance training, not replace them. Lab results apply to the production lot tested. Not evaluated by the FDA