Bone broth collagen is searched about 38,000 times a month across its phrasings, usually by someone deciding whether a mug of broth does what a scoop of collagen does. The short answer from the people who measured it: sometimes more, often less, and nothing about the cup says which.
This page reports the measurements, the labels and the trial doses side by side. It does not recommend broth or supplements; the amounts below are what studies and labels state.
What the lab found
Two studies from the Australian Institute of Sport and Australian Catholic University are the only published analyses that set bone broth against the collagen used in research.
The 2019 broth analysis (Alcock, Shaw and Burke, Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab) measured the collagen amino acids (glycine, proline, hydroxyproline, hydroxylysine) and two others in commercial, café and home-made broths. Its findings, from the abstract:
- Broth made to a standardised recipe was significantly lower in every amino acid measured than a 20 g serving of reference collagen supplements.
- Broths made to non-standard recipes varied widely; the café-prepared ones had the highest levels.
- At the same recipe, commercial broths were lower than self-prepared ones.
- Batches made to the same recipe did not differ, so the variation comes from the recipe, not from chance.
Its conclusion was that bone broth is unlikely to provide "reliable" concentrations of collagen precursors compared with supplements.
The 2019 follow-up (Alcock et al., Front Nutr) did something unusual: it picked the best broth from the first study, a chef-made café broth, and fed it to healthy men beside 20 g servings of collagen and dairy proteins. Its Table 1 gives the analysed contents:
| Serving | Total amino acids | Glycine | Proline | Cost per serving (as printed, Australia) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gelatin powder, 20 g | 20.1 g | 4.8 g | 2.7 g | $0.74 |
| Collagen peptide powder, 20 g | 20.6 g | 4.9 g | 2.7 g | $3.00 |
| Liquid collagen, 60 mL | 17.9 g | 4.2 g | 2.4 g | $5.37 |
| Café bone broth, 300 mL | 52.3 g | 11.8 g | 6.4 g | $4.50 |
So one broth, chosen because it was the richest found, carried more than twice the collagen amino acids of a 20 g scoop, at six times the price of gelatin. In the blood the broth produced a lower, slower amino-acid rise than the powders, which the authors put down to its fat and other components slowing digestion. The two studies together are the honest summary: the best broths can match or exceed a supplement serving, and the typical one cannot be counted on to.
What the labels say
Most bone broth sold as a supplement is a dried powder. The NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database holds 71 on-market labels with "bone broth" in the product name, from 21 brands (read 6 October 2026):
| What the label states | Labels |
|---|---|
| Protein per serving, powders (n = 66) | median 18 g; range 8–29 g |
| A gram figure for collagen | 11 of 71 |
| Glycine, proline or hydroxyproline content | 0 of 71 |
Protein on a bone broth label is not all collagen, and most labels do not say how much is. The 11 that state a collagen figure range from 3 g to 15.5 g a serving. A tablet product in the set gives 3 g of protein for three tablets. None lists the amino acids that the research measured, so a buyer can compare broth to broth only by protein.
Against the trial doses
The collagen trials reported on this site used 15 g a day in the muscle studies, 5–10 g for joints and 5 g for tendon and bone; the median US collagen peptide powder gives 11 g a scoop. Each trial, its comparator and its industry links are on how much collagen per day and indexed by endpoint on collagen peptide benefits.
A labelled bone broth powder that states its collagen grams can be read against those numbers. A liquid broth cannot: US food composition tables have no collagen field, the analysed broths differed several-fold, and no trial used broth as its intervention. No study has given bone broth and measured a tendon, joint, bone or skin outcome. The supplement trials themselves are small and often industry-supported, so even the comparison standard is not settled.
What else is in the pot
- Minerals. A Taiwanese analysis found calcium and magnesium in home-made and commercial broths at "low tenths of a milligram" per serving, under 5% of daily recommended amounts, despite the bones; a longer cook and a more acidic broth extracted more (Hsu et al., 2017).
- Lead. The same analysis put lead and cadmium at a few micrograms per serving and called the risk minimal. An earlier small study of organic chicken broths found 7.0 and 9.5 µg of lead per litre against 0.9 µg in the same water cooked alone (Monro et al., 2013). The two used different bones and methods; neither is large.
- Sodium. Label sodium in the powder set runs from 0 to 720 mg a serving.
Where it fits
Bone broth is one food among the collagen-containing foods; how gelatin, skin, connective-tissue cuts and fish compare, and what "collagen-boosting" plant foods actually claim, is on foods high in collagen. How collagen protein differs from whey for muscle is on collagen versus whey protein. Skin outcomes are outside this site's beat; Peptide Glow Journal's page on collagen peptides for hair and skin covers them.
What is not established
- How much collagen a typical cup of bone broth contains. The measured range is too wide for a single number.
- Whether drinking broth changes any tissue. No trial has tested it.
- Whether broth's slower amino-acid release matters. It was measured once, in one café broth.
Anyone on a sodium- or protein-restricted diet, or with kidney disease, has a reason to ask a clinician before adding concentrated broth.
Sources and dates
- Alcock RD, Shaw GC, Burke LM. Bone broth unlikely to provide reliable concentrations of collagen precursors compared with supplemental sources of collagen used in collagen research. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 2019;29:265–72, PMID 29893587 (abstract read; full text not openly available).
- Alcock RD, Shaw GC, Tee N, Burke LM. Plasma amino acid concentrations after the ingestion of dairy and collagen proteins, in healthy active males. Front Nutr 2019;6:163, PMID 31681789; Table 1 read in PMC6803522.
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, Dietary Supplement Label Database API v9: search "bone broth", 71 on-market labels with the phrase in the product name, each label record read for serving, protein, collagen, amino acids and sodium; 2026-10-06.
- Hsu DJ et al. Essential and toxic metals in animal bone broths. Food Nutr Res 2017;61:1347478, PMID 28804437.
- Monro JA, Leon R, Puri BK. The risk of lead contamination in bone broth diets. Med Hypotheses 2013;80:389–90, PMID 23375414.
- USDA FoodData Central, Foundation and SR Legacy search for "collagen": no food and no nutrient field, 2026-10-06.
- PubMed census:
"bone broth"[tiab], 27 records on 2026-10-06; the two Alcock studies are the only ones comparing broth with research collagen doses.