I paid to lab test Bang Energy and the results were so unbelievable that I decided to re-test Bang again with a 2nd independent lab to make sure what I was seeing was actually correct.
Let’s get straight to the lab results.
According to independent lab testing performed by Alpha Testing Labs, a single 16 fl. oz (473ml) can of Bang Energy Drink contains:
- 34.06mg of caffeine (300mg of caffeine is printed on the can)
- 63.86mg of CoQ10
- 18.92mg of Isoleucine
- 104.06mg of Leucine
- 18.92mg of Lysine
Find out more as I unleash the nutrients found in Bang energy drinks.
Why did I lab test the Bang energy drink?
The main reason I went to the effort of lab testing Bang was to determine the amount of CoQ10 and amino acids inside a can because Bang doesn’t mention how much of these ingredients are inside a can and I was curious.
Now that I have the lab results and am sharing them here with you in this article we can all benefit through increased transparency and better information about the actual composition of the Bang Energy drink.
I almost didn’t even bother testing for caffeine, but I’m glad that I did because the results were shocking…
Bang Energy Drink lab test report
The actual report that I received is a PDF and it seems that I can’t upload that document here in this article. So, I’ve taken screenshots of the various parts of the report and included them below.
If you have any doubts about the authenticity of this report, send me an email and I’ll forward you the original PDF document. You can also contact the lab that did the testing yourself to verify the accuracy of the report.
It’s legit.
“ND” means “not detected”.
“LOQ” means “limit of quantification”, or you could think of it as the smallest amount of something that the lab testing would be able to detect.
Keep in mind that a regular can of Bang contains 16 fl. oz of liquid, which is 473ml.
Therefore, multiply all of the above figures in the “result” column by 473 to find the total quantity (in milligrams) per can.
The sample tested was a 16 fl. oz can of Bang Energy Drink’s “Purple Guava Pear” flavor.
Bang Energy Drink Caffeine Content
According to the Bang Energy Drink label, a regular can contain 300mg of caffeine. However, lab testing results show a very different caffeine content.
The lab report shows that Bang contains just 34.06mg of caffeine per can, much less than the 300mg that is printed on the can.
That’s 88.6% less than what Bang advertised in a can.
When I saw this result, I immediately assumed there was a problem with the math, or that the lab result was wrong. I double and triple-checked my calculation and contacted the lab to confirm the results.
I was expecting +/- 10%, but being out by almost 90% seemed unbelievable.
After going back and forth with the lab a couple of times I decided to pay to have another lab test the caffeine content again to compare the results of two different tests.
Bang Caffeine tested by a different lab
I sent another sample of Bang to a different lab to test only the caffeine composition. I didn’t give them any indication about what I was expecting and they had no idea that I had also had testing done by a different lab.
Here are the results…
What does this mean?
I actually had to ask both labs to help me to interpret these results. After going back and forth several times, this is what I got:
Therefore, a 473ml can contain a total of 188mg of caffeine.
How do the 2 lab reports compare?
The Alpha Testing Labs test showed that a can of Bang Purple Guava Pear contains 34.06mg of caffeine in total. The second test was performed by Chemlab. That test showed that a can of Bang Sour Heads contains a total of 188mg of caffeine.
Keep in mind that Bang Energy Drink print on their cans that there is standard 300mg of caffeine per can.
In my opinion, there seem to be a couple of possible explanations for the large difference between what Bang says is in a can and what these lab results show:
- Bang actually contains 300mg of caffeine per can and both of these independent lab tests are incorrect, or
- Both of these lab test results are accurate and the difference between their readings is due to testing different flavors of Bang at each lab
If you can see any other possible explanations for the large discrepancy between what is printed on the Bang can and what the lab results show I would love to hear your thoughts.
Feel free to reach out to me to discuss this.
Of course, the perfect test would have been to send the same flavor, from the same batch to each of the independent labs. That way we could have compared apples for apples and verified that each of the labs was showing the same level of caffeine in each of their reports.
I concede that testing one flavor from one batch with one lab and a different flavor from a different batch with a second lab isn’t the ideal test.
But, the results are still mind-blowing.
Also, both of the lab results show that the level of caffeine is WAY LESS than what is advertised on a can. That gives me a fair amount of confidence in the accuracy of the results.
If one test showed a very low reading and the second test showed a very high reading that would be an indication to me that the lab testing exercise was a waste of time and didn’t give us any helpful information.
I’ll let you make up your mind about why there is such a large difference between the caffeine content that is printed on a can and what both of these lab reports show.
Summary of Differences
This table neatly summarizes the amount of caffeine in a regular can of Bang according to different sources of information:
| Source of Information | The caffeine content in a 16 fl. oz Bang |
| Bang | 300mg |
| Chemlab certificate of analysis (Sour Heads flavor) | 34.06mg |
| Chemlab certificate of analysis (Sour Heads flavour) | 188mg |
Bang Energy Drink CoQ10 Content
According to the lab test results, Bang Energy Drink contains a total of 63.86mg of CoQ10 per 16 fl. oz can.
According to Healthline, for almost all health conditions, a minimum daily dosage of 100mg is recommended and for some conditions, up to 400mg or more per day is recommended.
This is a problem because Bang supposedly contains 300mg of caffeine per can and the FDA recommends no more than 400mg of caffeine per day.
That means that you shouldn’t drink more than a single can of Bang per day, which means that you are only going to get 63.86mg of CoQ10 – which isn’t enough to meet the recommended daily intake according to Healthline.
Of course, you could point to the lab tests that I commissioned in this article and decide that Bang doesn’t actually contain 300mg of caffeine per can and choose to drink more than one can to get more CoQ10.
That seems like a dangerous choice and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it.
I think the safest course of action is to limit yourself to a maximum of one can of Bang per day and understand that you are probably only getting about 63.86mg of CoQ10.
I didn’t bother to re-test the CoQ10 quantity with the second lab because Bang doesn’t actually say how much CoQ10 is in a can. Therefore, there’s nothing to compare the lab result of 63.86mg to.
This study also mentions a minimum dose of at least 100mg of CoQ10 for any condition with some conditions requiring much more CoQ10 on a daily basis.
The bottom line?
Bang Energy Drink doesn’t contain enough CoQ10 to meet the recommended daily intake for most, if not all conditions according to independent lab test results.
Bang Energy Drink Amino Acids
Bang themselves don’t provide any information about the levels of this amino and simply print the fact that they are included on their cans.
Part of the test performed by Alpha Testing Labs included an analysis of the amino acid profile of Bang.
I included this test because I was curious about how much of each of these amino acids is actually included in Bang.
According to the information that is printed on a can of Bang, there are 9 amino acids included in the list of Bang ingredients:
- L-leucine
- L-isoleucine
- L-valine
- L-lysine
- L-threonine
- L-phenylalanine
- L-histidine
- L-methionine
- L-tryptophan
Bang doesn’t provide any information about how much of these amino acids are actually included in the ingredients.
That’s the main reason that I wanted to send it to a lab for testing – so we can all know how much of these are actually inside a can of Bang.
Bang Energy Amino Acid Test Results
Here is the section of the certificate of analysis from Alpha Testing Labs that shows the results for amino acid testing:
“ND” means “not detected”.
“LOQ” is the limit of quantification or the lowest amount that could be detected if it were present.
Summary of Differences
This table summarises the differences between what’s printed on a can of Bang and what lab testing shows:
| Amino Acid | According to Bang | According to lab test results |
| L-leucine | included | 0.22 mg/ml |
| L-isoleucine | included | 0.04 mg/ml |
| L-valine | included | not detected |
| L-lysine | included | 0.04 mg/ml |
| L-threonine | included | not detected |
| L-phenylalanine | included | not detected |
| L-histidine | included | not detected |
| L-methionine | included | not detected |
| L-tryptophan | included | not detected |
In my opinion, there seem to be a couple of possible explanations for the above differences between what Bang says is included and what lab results show is actually included:
- The lab test results are inaccurate and Bang does actually contain all of the stated amino acids, or
- The lab test results are accurate and Bang does not actually contain all of the amino acids that it says are included
Are the included Amino Acids meaningful?
According to lab testing, Bang contains only 3 amino acids:
- L-leucine (0.04 mg/ml)
- L-isoleucine (0.22 mg/ml)
- L-lysine (0.04 mg/ml)
Multiplying those numbers by 473ml (16 fl. oz is 473ml) we get these total amounts for each of these amino:
- L-leucine (18.92mg in total per regular can of Bang)
- L-isoleucine (104.06mg in total per can)
- L-lysine (18.92mg in total per can)
Bang Energy Drink L-leucine
Bang contains 18.92mg of L-leucine per 16 fl. oz can according to Alpha Lab Testing results.
According to examine.com, L-leucine is typically taken in doses of 2,000-5000mg for acute usage.
Even if we take the lower end of that range, a can of Bang contains less than 1% of the amount required to supplement acute usage based on lab test results (18.92mg vs 2,000mg required).
Bang Energy Drink L-isoleucine
According to lab test results, a regular 16 fl. oz can of Bang contains 104.06mg of L-isoleucine.
According to the US National Library of Medicine, doses of 3,000mg of L-isoleucine are common for some use cases.
Bang Energy Drink L-lysine
A 16 fl. oz can of Bang contains 18.92mg of L-lysine according to lab test results.
According to WebMD, doses of 1,000mg per day are appropriate for treating cold sores.
Bang Energy Drink Heavy Metal Profile
I also tested the Bang energy drink for the presence of heavy metals and some dangerous substances. Good news – none were detected.
This was the expected result, but I thought it was worth testing at the same time as doing these other tests.
What labs did I use for this testing?
I did the first round of testing with Alpha Testing Labs in Malaysia and the second round of testing with Chemlab, also in Malaysia.
Bang Energy Drink Ingredients Lab Results Verdict
I really wish the caffeine content in Bang was within 10% of the advertised figure.
I think that’s what we all want.
Seeing the result from the lab so different from what’s printed on the can is a reason to question lots of things. Not just from Bang, but also other brands too.
In my opinion, it would be great to be able to trust brands to give you an accurate idea of how much of each ingredient is actually included in an energy drink.
Of course, there is always the chance that both of the lab reports are wrong. You can decide what the likelihood of that being the case is.
Also, this isn’t just about the caffeine quantity – although that is the most shocking thing to come out of this lab test.
The lab testing also highlighted large differences between the amino acids that Bang says are included in a can and what was actually detected at the time of the lab testing.
Then there’s the CoQ10 result, which we don’t have anything to measure against because Bang themselves don’t provide any guidance about how much is included in each can.
In any case, the amount of CoQ10 detected by the lab analysis is less than the dose required for most purposes.
Overall, if these lab test results are accurate, I think that Bang is perhaps not a meaningful source of any of these ingredients, despite printing them in very large font on all of their cans.
Personally, if I was serious about consuming a certain amount of CoQ10 or particular amino acids, I would probably supplement them by some other means instead of assuming that I’m getting a sufficient amount of them from my daily Bang.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of Bang energy drink and that’s a big part of the reason for engaging in this lab testing in the first place.
I’ve previously written about the Bang ingredients, whether Bang is bad for you if you can drink Bang every day, and whether or not Bang actually works.
You should definitely check out some of those other articles if you’re interested to learn more about Bang.
Just keep these lab results in the back of your mind as you read anything about Bang elsewhere online.
There is always the chance that these lab results are incorrect, but then again, there’s also the chance that these lab results are accurate.