Bulk Vegan Protein Powder review

Our take: cheap, varied and a little vague

Bulk Vegan Protein Powder is the main rival to Myprotein Impact Vegan Protein at the value end of the market. Its selling points are a broader plant blend — pea, soya, pumpkin seed, quinoa and flaxseed — stevia rather than sucralose, and low prices in its larger bags.

Where it falls short is the label. Depending on where you look, a serving gives “up to 27 g”, 24.2 g per 35 g, or 23 g of protein. The powder is about 69 per cent protein, noticeably less than Myprotein’s vegan blend at about 80 per cent, which means more flavouring and filler per gram of protein. None of that makes it a bad product; it makes it harder to compare honestly.

This is a desk review. We have read the published ingredient list, UK listings and the research on plant protein and resistance training. We have not used this product, tested its contents or run a trial. We could not open Bulk’s own product page while writing, so the next section says where each figure came from.

What exactly are you buying?

Bulk Vegan Protein Powder is sold in pack sizes including 1 kg, 2.5 kg and 5 kg, in several flavours. The chocolate version’s ingredient list, from Bulk’s product-page summary, is: a vegan protein blend (pea protein isolate, soya protein isolate, pumpkin seed protein, quinoa flour, flaxseed powder), reduced-fat cocoa powder, flavouring, an emulsifier (sunflower lecithin), the sweetener steviol glycosides, a digestive enzyme complex (amylase, protease, cellulase, lactase, lipase) and a thickener (xanthan gum).

The protein figures disagree:

• Bulk’s own product-page title: up to 27 g of plant protein per serving.
• A UK price tracker: 69 g of protein per 100 g, or 24.2 g per 35 g serving.
• An Amazon.co.uk listing for the 1 kg vanilla pouch: 23 g per serving, 28 servings per pack.

“Up to” usually means the best flavour; the others probably reflect different flavours or an older formula. We cannot tell which applies to the pack you buy, so read its panel. Whatever the exact figure, the 35 g scoop is larger than the 30 to 32 g scoops of its rivals, so each serving carries more non-protein ingredients.

The blend itself is sensible. Mixing several plant sources evens out the amino acid profile, and soya protein is itself a complete protein. The enzyme complex is included to help digestion; there is little evidence it matters for a protein shake, but it does no harm.

Does plant protein build muscle as well as whey?

For most people, yes, provided total protein is enough. In a 2015 randomised trial by Babault and colleagues, 161 young men doing 12 weeks of resistance training took pea protein, whey or a placebo; muscle thickness increased similarly with pea and whey. A 2018 meta-analysis by Messina and colleagues found soy protein produced similar gains in strength and lean mass to animal protein. And a 2021 study by Hevia-Larraín and colleagues found vegans and omnivores on protein-matched diets gained similar muscle and strength.

The rule is the same as for any protein powder: reach your daily total first. A 2018 meta-analysis by Morton and colleagues found gains in fat-free mass levelled off at around 1.6 g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day. Our protein calculator works out your figure.

Testing

The listings we read made no banned-substance testing claim, such as Informed Sport, for this product. For an ordinary gym-goer, that is a low risk from an established UK brand. For an athlete under anti-doping rules, choose a product whose batch you can look up; Gold Standard 100% Plant is on Optimum Nutrition’s own Informed Sport registered list.

Price: compare per 100 g of protein

Bulk lists the product from £9.99 for its smallest pack. A UK price tracker gave the 5 kg bag as the cheapest option at £1.56 per 100 g. If that figure is per 100 g of powder, then at 69 per cent protein it works out at about £2.26 per 100 g of protein. We could not confirm the 1 kg or 2.5 kg prices, and we read these figures from listings rather than taking an order through checkout.

That is the trap with this product: because the powder is less protein-dense than its rivals, a price per 100 g of powder flatters it. Compare per 100 g of protein. On that basis the 5 kg bag is roughly level with Myprotein Impact Vegan Protein in its 2.5 kg pouch at about £2.16, and well below Gold Standard 100% Plant at £4.36 to £5.56.

Best alternatives

The ones we have fully reviewed are linked, and appear in the comparison cards below this article. The others we name for comparison only: we have not reviewed them in full, so do not read their inclusion as a recommendation.

• Myprotein Impact Vegan Protein (reviewed) — our highest-scoring protein powder: about 24 g of protein per 30 g scoop, a clearer label and a similar price per gram of protein. It contains fava bean rather than soya, which matters if you have G6PD deficiency or a soya allergy.
• Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Plant (reviewed) — pea and rice, Informed Sport registered, about twice the price per gram. The choice for drug-tested athletes.
• Bulk Pea Protein Isolate (not yet reviewed) — Bulk’s single-source option at up to 80 per cent protein, for anyone who wants to avoid soya or prefers a plainer ingredient list.
• Soya milk, tofu, tempeh and lentils — the food route, which most vegans can use to reach their target without a powder.

Who should skip it, and what to watch for

It contains soya, so anyone with a soya allergy should avoid it, and anyone with other allergies should check the may-contain statement for their flavour. Some people find pea-based powders cause wind or bloating at first; starting with half a scoop helps.

Anyone with kidney disease should ask their GP or dietitian before increasing protein. Food supplements sold in Great Britain are not approved by a regulator for safety or effectiveness before sale, so the label is the manufacturer’s responsibility rather than a regulator’s endorsement.

Sources and shopping: our UK buying checklist

Before you order, read the nutrition panel for your flavour and note the protein per serving and per 100 g. Work out the cost per 100 g of protein — price ÷ (pack weight × protein per 100 g ÷ 100) × 100 — and compare it with Myprotein’s vegan blend on the same day. The larger bags are the cheapest per gram if you will finish them before their best-before date.

When the pack arrives, check the seal, the batch code and the best-before date.

Our commercial link for this product is our Bulk Vegan Protein Powder link. It earns us a commission at no extra cost to you, and it has no influence on the score above — which is a 7.4, held back by protein figures that disagree between listings, a less protein-dense powder and no testing claim.

The fair summary is this. Bulk Vegan Protein is a cheap, varied plant protein that will do the job. Read your pack’s protein figure and compare it per gram of protein, and you will know whether it is the bargain it looks.