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When it comes to plant-based protein powders, Truvani, which was co-founded by fitness influencer Vani Hari, has created one of the most popular options on the market. In this Truvani protein powder review, we’ll take a closer look at this premium plant-based protein.
What’s so special about Truvani? Is it a trustworthy product? In this review, I’m going to break down all of the details about this plant-based protein powder, which is worthy of our best vegan protein powder roundup. Let’s dive in.
Medical disclaimer: This article is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. For health advice, contact a licensed healthcare provider. GGR also recommends choosing a product that has been third-party tested for quality.
Hands-On Testing from a Team of Experts
We thoroughly test and score every single product we review, using strict grading criteria to help you make an informed decision. Our testers are nutritionists, dietitians, athletes, and personal trainers, and we love testing as many products as we can get our hands on.
As a team, our testers have carefully scored over 100 protein powders based on the following criteria:
- Price per serving
- Formulation
- Taste
- Solubility
- Side effects
- Third-party testing
- Customer service
- Customer reviews
For this review, I’ve personally been testing and using Truvani protein powder for the last few days. In the past, I’ve been a little picky when it comes to plant-based protein powders, and if I have criticisms of Truvani, I won’t hold back. Let’s see if Truvani can make me a bigger fan of plant-based protein powders.
Truvani Protein Powder
Truvani Organic Plant-Based Protein Powder
Product Highlights
- Made with 6 organic ingredients
- Rich chocolate flavor
- A USDA-certified organic, vegan, dairy-free, soy-free, and non-GMO product
- 20 grams of protein per serving
- Has 4.4/5 stars on Amazon and 14,000+ reviews
- #4 in Sports Nutrition Pea Protein Powders on Amazon
- Store in a cool and dry place
Pros & Cons
Pros
- No added sugars or stevia
- Does not have a chalky or grainy taste
- Reviewers love the chocolate flavor
- Paleo-friendly
- Organic
- Vegan
- Certified gluten-free
Cons
- Expensive (about $2.50 per serving)
- Made in a facility that processes wheat, tree nuts, shellfish, fish, peanuts, and eggs
Bottom Line
The chocolate flavor is a fan favorite, especially on Amazon, as Truvani’s Chocolate Protein Powder is rated #4 in Sports Nutrition Pea Protein Powders at the time of writing. We’ve found that reviewers love this product for its taste and simple ingredients.
A Quick Look at Truvani Protein Powder
Truvani was co-founded by New York Times best-selling author Vani Hari, also known as Food Babe, along with Derek Halpern and Devin Duncan. Vani is known for her criticisms of the food industry and hidden ingredients like heavy metals that aren’t always listed on food labels, and Truvani was founded to meet her rigid standards.
All Truvani products are made from the highest-quality, certified organic ingredients, with no artificial sweeteners, preservatives, chemicals, or toxins. Truvani is also obsessed with testing—each ingredient is tested before entering the manufacturing process, and the final products are third-party tested for accuracy.
Co-founder Derek Halpern said in his blog: “What makes us different? I had a conversation with our head of manufacturing, and he said, ‘I’ve been in this industry for a while. No one tests their ingredients for safety as much as Truvani.’ It’s expensive. It’s tedious. And it’s 100% worth it.”
This testing is reflected in the cost of the protein, which isn’t cheap, but with high production standards and rigorous testing, you’re paying for quality you can trust.
Truvani’s plant-based protein powder is a soy-free protein that instead uses pea protein, which has been shown to have a similar impact to whey protein1 on muscle thickness and strength after resistance training.
RELATED: Pea Protein Benefits
Let’s take a closer look at Truvani’s plant-based, dairy-free, gluten-free protein supplement.
Before You Buy
- Truvani was founded by Vani Hari, or Food Babe, who built her reputation by criticizing the food industry’s hidden ingredients and additives, which means Truvani is all about transparency and ingredient quality.
- While not cheap, Truvani protein powder is an excellent product that scored well in nearly every one of our testing categories, except price per serving.
- Each bag only contains 20 servings, and each serving contains 20 g of protein, so you may go through the bag faster than expected if you have a high daily protein goal.
Is Truvani Protein Powder Worth It?
Truvani’s organic plant-based protein powder isn’t cheap, but you get what you pay for. The company uses whole-food, non-GMO, USDA organic ingredients in every flavor that are tested both before and after the manufacturing process. Before placing your order, you need to ensure this product is a good fit for your goals.
Great for:
- Anyone following a plant-based diet
- Those who want a vegan protein powder with a simple ingredient list and strict product testing standards
- Fitness enthusiasts who find that whey protein causes digestive challenges
Not recommended for:
- Anyone on a tight budget
- Those who prefer dairy products, or don’t like the texture of plant-based protein powder
- Anyone on a calorie-restricted diet, as the calories are a little high for only 20 g of protein, but this is common in plant-based protein powders
Truvani Protein Powder Specs
| Price per serving | $2.50 |
| Serving size | 33 g |
| Type of protein | Pea protein, chia seed protein |
| Protein content | 20-21 g |
| Carb content | 1-7 g |
| Fat content | 1.5-5 g |
| Notable ingredients | Organic pea protein, organic vanilla powder, organic pumpkin seed, organic monk fruit extract, organic chia seed protein |
| Flavors | Chocolate, Vanilla, Matcha, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Vanilla Chai, Peanut Butter, Banana Cinnamon, Unflavored |
| Third-party tested? | Yes, but Truvani doesn’t disclose who does the testing |
Experience Using Truvani Protein Powder
I’ve been using Truvani organic protein powder every day for the past week, and I must say that I’m quite impressed.
While most dairy products are OK with me, if I drink enough whey protein, I find that I often feel a little bloated and uncomfortable. With Truvani, I haven’t had any digestive issues at all, even when I mixed it with regular skim milk one day.
RELATED: Best Pea Protein Powder
One small issue I had was that Truvani ships in a resealable plastic bag, and I found it difficult to close the bag due to the powder trapped in the sealing mechanism. This happens with every resealable protein I’ve used, not just Truvani, but it’s a small inconvenience every time I use the protein.
Price Per Serving
This was a tricky category to score. Truvani sells each flavor for $59.99, or $49.99 if you set up a recurring monthly order.
However, the product is often cheaper at other retailers like Amazon or Whole Foods, who both sell Truvani protein powder for $35-37 at the time of writing. So while the MSRP is $59.99, Amazon has offered Truvani protein powder at a consistently lower price since November 2023.
The Amazon price is usually around $49.99, so I’ll use a price-per-serving of $2.50, which is high compared to other protein powders.
Truvani scores a 1 out of 5 for price per serving, which significantly brings down the overall rating, though it shouldn’t be too hard to find a much better price at other retailers.
Formulation
For the formulation, Truvani earns a solid 4 out of 5 rating.
It’s great that Truvani uses simple ingredients, but there are only 20 to 21 grams of protein per serving depending on the flavor, which is a bit less than you’d find in most whey protein powders. That said, it’s nice to see organic ingredients without any unnecessary additives or fillers.
RELATED: Best Organic Protein Powder
The primary protein source is pea protein, with no other proteins mixed in.
Carbs range from 1 to 7 grams and fats range from 1.5 to 5 grams depending on the flavor, which is higher than whey protein but common in plant-based protein powders. It would be nice if the carb and fat content were standardized across every flavor, but with real food ingredients used for flavoring, this isn’t possible.
There are no added BCAAs, glutamine, creatine, probiotics, or any other ingredients present that would further increase the cost.
RELATED: Plant-Based Protein vs Whey
Taste and Solubility
Truvani says that its best-sellers are chocolate and vanilla, so I decided to mix things up and go with the vanilla chai flavor. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by both the flavor and texture.
When I mixed it with water, the flavor was kind of weak, and the texture was a bit grainy, as is the case with most plant-based protein powders. However, the chai flavors from the natural spices were still there, and when I mixed the powder with skim milk, the flavor was delicious.
Garage Gym Reviews tester Amanda Capritto tested the chocolate flavor and said it reminded her of an earthy dark chocolate drink, rather than chocolate milk. She said it wasn’t very sweet and tasted very much like cocoa powder.
From reading the reviews, it seems like other flavors may not be quite so tasty. Also, most reviews say they love the smooth texture, so maybe I’m just sensitive to textures as I found it slightly grainy. However, even with the grainy texture, the Vanilla Chai flavor was one of the best-tasting protein powders I’ve ever tried.
This earns a 4 out of 5 for both flavor and solubility.
Side Effects
I didn’t experience any side effects at all after a week of using this protein, so it earns a solid 5 out of 5.
One of the plant-based protein powder benefits is the lack of lactose, which can cause digestive issues for some people. Plant-based proteins are generally easier on the stomach, and I couldn’t find any user reviews that mentioned negative side effects.
However, while many people choose plant-based proteins to avoid lactose, plant proteins can still cause issues, according to Stephanie Wells, MS, RD, LD, ACSM-CPT.
Stephanie pointed out that even plant-based proteins can still cause digestive issues in people who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), because they may contain FODMAPs2, which are small sugars found in certain types of plants. If you’re someone who has issues with FODMAPs, you may need to avoid plant-based protein powders.
Third-Party Testing
When it comes to third-party testing, Truvani gets a 4.5 out of 5.
On its website, Truvani says: “We rigorously third-party test every single product for purity and potency before it even enters our facility, then again for traces of mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, and glyphosate.”
Many companies use third-party testing on the final product, but I’ve never heard of a company testing ingredients ahead of time as well. This is worth calling out as the supplement industry doesn’t always have the strictest testing standards.
However, they don’t disclose which testing facilities they use, and on its page about testing, Truvani claims that there could be hundreds of tests for a single product, so it’s too complicated to share results. I can’t imagine they’d make such a big deal about testing if they weren’t actually doing it, but I thought this was worth mentioning.
Comparison to Transparent Labs Organic Vegan Rice & Pea Protein
If you’re looking for a more affordable alternative, Transparent Labs Organic Vegan Rice & Pea Protein is a very similar plant-based protein powder. The protein content is slightly higher per serving, and it’s much more affordable. However, Truvani has more flavors, and only uses pea protein, compared to Transparent Labs, which uses a mix of pea and rice protein.
Rice is an incomplete protein, which means it does not contain all of the essential amino acids our bodies can’t produce. Truvani is more expensive but contains only pea protein, so you’re probably getting more essential amino acids per serving with Truvani.
Finally, none of our testers are vegan, so we may not be used to plant-based proteins, but we didn’t particularly enjoy the taste of the Transparent Labs plant-based protein powder.
| Truvani Plant-Based Protein Powder | Transparent Labs Organic Vegan Rice & Pea Protein | |
| Price per serving | $2.50 | $1.66 |
| Serving size | 33 g | 32.05 g |
| Type of protein | Pea protein, chia seed protein | Organic rice protein, organic pea protein isolate |
| Protein content | 20-21 g | 24 g |
| Carb content | 1-7 g | 3-7 g |
| Fat content | 1.5-5 g | 2-2.5 g |
| Notable ingredients | Organic pea protein, organic vanilla powder, organic pumpkin seed, organic monk fruit extract, organic chia seed protein | Organic rice protein, organic pea protein isolate, organic cocoa powder, himalayan rock salt, natural flavor, organic stevia |
| Flavors | Chocolate, Vanilla, Matcha, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Vanilla Chai, Peanut Butter, Banana Cinnamon, Unflavored | Chocolate, French Vanilla |
| Third-party tested? | Yes | Yes |
Customer Experience
Truvani offers live chat support, email support, and a phone number you can call for help. If you’re unhappy with your protein powder, you can contact support to request a refund within 30 days of delivery, but you’ll have to pay for return shipping fees yourself.
This only applies to orders placed directly through Truvani’s website, so if you get your protein from a different retailer, you’ll need to follow that retailer’s return policy.
Ordering Truvani Protein Powder
The most confusing thing about Truvani is the price, as the cost on their website is higher than any other retailer I can find, and both Amazon and Whole Foods regularly sell Truvani at a significantly lower cost.
However, the one positive of ordering from Truvani’s website is the Truvani Discovery Set, which allows you to purchase a single serving of each protein flavor to try them all out before you purchase.
The sample pack costs $49.99, which isn’t cheap, but it’s loaded with all eight protein flavors, all six flavors of their snack bar, a seven-day supply of collagen, and a stainless steel Truvani shaker cup.
Customer Reviews
From reading reviews on both Truvani’s website and Amazon, people seem to love Truvani, but the flavors are hit or miss. Chocolate and Vanilla Chai seem to be the most popular, with many reviewers saying they couldn’t stand the Matcha or Vanilla Flavors.
Final Verdict of Our Truvani Protein Powder Review
Overall, Truvani is a high-quality, strictly tested plant-based protein option that tastes great and is easy on the stomach. However, it’s not cheap, especially for only 20 to 21 grams of protein per serving, and their pricing model is a little confusing.
- Truvani has some of the strictest testing standards we’ve seen in the protein industry
- It’s a little low in protein per serving, but this is common with plant-based proteins
- Flavors seem to be hit or miss, so you may want to order Truvani’s Discovery Set to sample all of them
Full Rating
Truvani Protein Powder
The chocolate flavor is a fan favorite, especially on Amazon, as Truvani’s Chocolate Protein Powder is rated #4 in Sports Nutrition Pea Protein Powders at the time of writing. We’ve found that reviewers love this product for its taste and simple ingredients.
Product Brand: Truvani
Product Currency: $
Product Price: 37.49
Product In-Stock: InStock
4.04
Truvani Protein Powder: FAQs
Is Truvani a good protein powder?
Yes, Truvani plant-based protein is a very high-quality protein with clean ingredients and strict testing standards. It’s not cheap, but as far as plant-based protein powders go, this is one of the better options both in formulation and taste.
What is Truvani sweetened with?
Truvani is flavored with whole food ingredients. The main sweetener is an organic monk fruit extract, though other flavors may contain additional ingredients, like cocoa powder, matcha, or various spices.
Is Truvani protein powder 3rd party tested?
Yes, Truvani tests individual ingredients before they are used, and the final products are third-party tested. We don’t know which organization does this testing though.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases.
References
- Babault N, Païzis C, Deley G, et al. Pea proteins oral supplementation promotes muscle thickness gains during resistance training: a double-blind, randomized, Placebo-controlled clinical trial vs. Whey protein. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12(1):3. Published 2015 Jan 21. doi:10.1186/s12970-014-0064-5
- Monash University. Protein Powders and IBS. https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/protein-powders-and-ibs/. Accessed 1/20/24.
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