Purity Tiers: how we grade protein supplements
Every product on ChooseSahi carries a tier badge — A+, A, B or C. It comes from one calculation, applied identically to all 3,242 whey products and everything else in the catalogue: protein per serving divided by serving size. That is the whole formula, and this page exists so you can check our work.
The reason it is worth a dedicated number is that the front of a tub tells you protein per scoop and says nothing about scoop size. A 40 g scoop delivering 24 g of protein and a 27 g scoop delivering the same 24 g both advertise “24 g protein”. The first is 60% protein; the second is 89%. You buy powder by weight, so the fraction of it that is protein is what decides your real cost per gram.
No brand can influence a tier. There is no editorial adjustment, no paid placement, and no commercial relationship with any brand listed. If a product we would rather not recommend calculates to an A+, it gets an A+.
The four tiers
- A+88% and above protein by weight
Essentially pure protein. In practice this means a well-made isolate or hydrolysate: almost all the lactose, fat and carbohydrate has been filtered out. A 30 g scoop delivering 27 g or more of protein sits here.
- A75% to 87% protein by weight
A good concentrate or a lighter isolate. This is where most quality whey in India lands, and for most buyers it is the sensible tier — the gap in outcome between an A and an A+ is far smaller than the gap in price.
- B60% to 74% protein by weight
A blend, a flavour-heavy formula, or a concentrate carrying a lot of added carbohydrate. Not necessarily a bad product, but you are paying for a meaningful amount of powder that is not protein.
- CBelow 60% protein by weight
Mostly something other than protein. Mass gainers live here by design — their job is calories — so a C on a gainer is expected rather than damning. A C on a product sold as whey protein is not.
What the score deliberately ignores
A single number cannot describe a supplement, and pretending otherwise is how scoring systems become marketing. Purity says nothing about amino acid profile, absorption rate, taste, mixability, heavy metal content, or whether the label is truthful in the first place. It measures one thing precisely instead of many things vaguely.
The largest blind spot is worth naming directly: purity cannot detect amino spiking. Free-form glycine, taurine and BCAAs added to a powder register as protein under the nitrogen-based testing that produces label figures, so a spiked product can score well. That is why we publish a separate guide to spotting amino spiking from the ingredient list, and why the tier should be read alongside it rather than instead of it.
For non-protein categories — creatine, pre-workout, omega-3, multivitamins — the purity score does not apply at all, because protein content is not a meaningful measure of them. Those products are compared on dose per serving and cost instead.
Frequently asked questions
How is the purity score calculated?
Protein per serving divided by serving size, expressed as a percentage. A 30 g scoop delivering 24 g of protein scores 80%. Nothing else feeds into it — not brand, not price, not our opinion.
Why does purity matter more than protein per scoop?
Because scoop sizes differ. A 40 g scoop delivering 24 g of protein and a 27 g scoop delivering 24 g look identical on the front of the tub, but the first is 60% protein and the second is 89%. You are buying the powder, so what fraction of it is protein decides what you actually get per rupee.
Can a brand pay to change its tier?
No. The tier is arithmetic on the nutrition panel. There is no editorial input, no paid placement, and no commercial relationship with any brand on the site.
Is a C tier product always bad?
No. Mass gainers are C tier by design, because their purpose is calories rather than protein density. The tier describes what a product is, not whether it suits you. A C on something sold as pure whey is a different matter.
What does the purity score not measure?
Amino acid quality, absorption, taste, mixability, heavy metal content and whether the label is honest. It measures one thing precisely rather than many things vaguely, which is why we publish the calculation.