Coles Pea Protein Review (Vs BN Pea Protein)

zfind on 01/08/2025 - 17:37
Last edited 01/08/2025 - 20:07 by 1 other user

I’d heard on OzBargain that Coles’ pea protein was a cheap source for supplementing. I’ve been exclusively on Bulk Nutrients’ chocolate pea protein for a while and enjoy it but wanted to see how this compares as I have Coles really close by.

Method: 1x BN plastic scoop of pea protein 30g) with one average tablespoon of nestle 100% cocoa for flavour (8g). No sweetening. Shake dry then add water and soy milk.

Costs: protein: 500g $10, cocoa 190g $8

Cost: Coles = $0.91, BN = $1.00 (before shipping)

Taste: subjective but better than BN, pure chocolate flavour with some earthy hints.

Texture: much better than BN which I find floury and granular. This was silkier and went down a lot more cleanly.

Overall this is a good combo - cheaper if only slightly if we talk pure product cost but quite a bit once you add postage for BN. Theres no sweeteners or flavours added which may be a bonus.

Caveat: to do a truly fair comparison we’d have to add in the cost of sweeteners, say Stevia. Which is expensive so may equalise the score. Also, I’ve heard anecdotally that most pea protein is sourced from China. I can’t tell if either vendor uses product from there and I personally don’t care but we do know CN foodstuffs have a problematic past. I trust both sources enough to not worry.

Hope this helps other protein consumers 👍🏽

Food & Grocery Pea Protein

Related Stores

Coles
Coles

Comments

  • AustriaBargain on 01/08/2025 - 18:09

    How does this compare to the flavoured vegetable protein from Bulk Nutrients? I like the choc honeycomb earth protein, with a cup of milk and half a frozen banana.

    • zfind on 01/08/2025 - 18:43

      I enjoy the Earth protein, if I recall it was a bit more luxurious on the mouthfeel but the cost put me off.

      Adapting to the pea protein took a bit of time as it’s more grainy but I prefer non-dairy now.

      • AustriaBargain on 01/08/2025 - 18:52

        I find blending in frozen banana or soft tofu helps thicken and cover the texture. And don't you get an incomplete amino acid profile or whatever with just pea, shouldn't you want to add rice protein to get all the amino acids?

        • zfind on 01/08/2025 - 19:41

          Soft tofu you say, intriguing.

          I haven’t looked into the amino profile tbh, if BN sells it I trusts it. I get protein from chicken, tofu and soy products anyway. No red meats, limited dairy. I’m sure I’m good. The mussies don’t lie 😄

  • Gunnar on 01/08/2025 - 18:57

    I never thought I’d have a legitimate use for this but here we are:
    https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=521127804731372&surface_ty…

  • stuckster on 01/08/2025 - 23:18
    +1

    The difference and cost saving is actually much greater than that (comparing base products with no additives).

    PPI Coles BN
    $/kg $20 $33
    Protein/100g 80.6 78.4
    $/100g Protein $2.28 $4.2
    Quality (DIAAS) 0.87 0.55
    $/100g Protein (quality adjusted) $2.85 $7.65

    Basically Coles PPI >>> BN PPI

    • zfind on 01/08/2025 - 23:21

      Thanks for expanding. Where / how did you get quality scores for each product? They’re both generic pea protein no?

      • stuckster on 01/08/2025 - 23:37

        It's calculated from the amino acid profile for each product. Admittedly I've used a generic Yellow PPI profile for the Coles product (sourced from the World Health Organisation), since it is not displayed on the packet and yellow PPI is the most common form.

        • tenpercent on 02/08/2025 - 10:08

          The $/100g protein is still stacked in the Coles brand favour, but just assuming a DIAAS that's so much higher than the competitor product could be misleading. For example if they are actually using the same ingredients as BN then it would be $4.14 per 100g adjusted protein. And then it's not much cheaper than WPI.

          INC WPI

          $/kg $41.95
          Protein/100g 81.9%
          $/100g protein $5.12
          Quality DIAAS 1.09
          $/100g adjusted protein $4.69

          Also worth considering if you're allergic (chances are you won't know til you try pea protein since there's generally no other way to get such a high load of pea protein). I had a colleague who tried a pea protein shake for the first time while at work and he went into an anaphylactic reaction and started choking for air. Luckily another colleague recognised what was happening and administered her epi-pen to him and saved him. The ambos said that it was their third call out that year for someone having a serious reaction to pea protein. He had no other allergic history and when the doctors tested they confirmed he had had a serious pea protein allergy.

          • zfind on 02/08/2025 - 10:35

            @tenpercent: Seems like such an innocuous thing to then have an allergy to. Glad he was OK.

          • stuckster on 02/08/2025 - 12:22

            @tenpercent: Great point about the alergy thing. Def something to keep in mind when trying any new foods in concetrated forms.

            Certainly true that most pea proteins work out about the same as some of the more competitve priced WPIs ($/100g protein quality adjusted). So if you're after plant based protein, soy is typically much more cost effective.

            The issue with the BN PPI is that it suffers from comparatively low levels of Methionine and Cysteine which really reduces it's DIAAS. This is the limiting amino acid in most pea proteins, but in the case of Bulk Nutrients it's like half the level of it's competitors. So the generic PPI values I used for Coles PPI are probably more like the industry average.

            PPI Methionine Cysteine
            Coles (generic) 850 1000
            SSD 1200 1100
            Amino Nutrition 1260 1530
            Bulk Nutrients 540 600
        • ATTS on 05/08/2025 - 14:20

          Is optimum nutrition protein good?

          Also is wpi better than wpc?

          • stuckster on 05/08/2025 - 22:12

            @ATTS:

            Is optimum nutrition protein good?

            It's about average (based on a price of $40/kg). It has a DIAAS of 1.12. So you can do better, but you can certainly do worse. It all depends what price you can buy it for.

            Also is wpi better than wpc?

            Not really. If you're purely talking about $/100g protein (quality adjusted), there's a good spread of both good and bad value products in both categories. WPIs typically have a higher percentage of protein (not always), but they're also more expensive. Some of the higher quality WPC and blends are better value than the top WPIs. WPIs are usually cleaner, with fewer additives and fillers. They also generally have slightly fewer fats and carbs/sugar. My advice is find a good quality WPC and buy it on sale. You can't go wrong.

  • jv on 02/08/2025 - 01:18

    with one average tablespoon of nestle 100% cocoa for flavour

    Mr. Money Bags…

    https://www.helios.sc/blog/are-insane-cocoa-prices-the-new-n…

    • zfind on 02/08/2025 - 10:30

      It’s the cheapest product without being loaded with sugar as a drinking chocolate. I just love my chocolate.

  • numiron989 on 02/08/2025 - 06:02

    That DIAAS breakdown is actually super useful. I never thought Coles would come out ahead on both cost and quality-adjusted protein like that. Might give it a shot now, especially since BN’s shipping adds up quick.

    • tenpercent on 02/08/2025 - 10:10

      If you're refering to this, old mate has just assumed the DIAAS for the Coles product. He doesn't know if it's higher or lower or the same as the BN product.

      • stuckster on 02/08/2025 - 12:55

        That's true. But considering there are several Pea Proteins on the market with DIAASs higher than the generic Coles one, I'd consider it to be about average, meaning that the BN product is on the lower end.

        • tenpercent on 02/08/2025 - 14:34

          Definitely BN is on the lower end, but we don't know that Coles' isn't too.

  • ihbh on 02/08/2025 - 08:32

    Note the Coles on: Packed in Australia from Imported ingredients

    • Ozbar Gain on 02/08/2025 - 09:08

      Isn't the BN one made from imported ingredients too?

      • ihbh on 02/08/2025 - 10:10

        I din't check; only commenting on Coles product.

      • zfind on 02/08/2025 - 10:33

        Yes - “packed in Australia using less than 10% Australian ingredients”

  • Ozbar Gain on 02/08/2025 - 09:10

    I always get the soy protes from BN because apparently the amino profile is better on soy. But the costs do add up so I have to order 3 or 4 bags at a time to at least make the shipping worth it.

    BTW Coles' creatin is a good deal too

    • zfind on 02/08/2025 - 10:34

      Hadn’t seen Coles brand creatine, nice! I pay the premium for the BN creatine nitrate caps for convenience (and taste).

    • stuckster on 02/08/2025 - 12:09

      If you're talking about this one it's $88/kg.
      Focal nutrition sells 100% creatine on Ebay at $35/kg which is an OZB favourite.

  • GordonD on 02/08/2025 - 09:24

    I just microwave a bowl of frozen peas.

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