Copper in food supplements

Copper: in France, a food supplement may not provide more than 2,000 µg a day (Order of 9 May 2006, not revised since November 2006, Annex III); for adults, EFSA's upper safe limit is 5 mg a day. The doses of the 2006 Order have not been revised since the amending Order of 14 November 2006, and some were annulled by the Conseil d'État in 2011; the DGCCRF accepted higher levels for some nutrients through guidelines published until January 2019, and an update of the Order is being prepared (ministerial answer published in the Official Journal on 11 February 2025).

Uses

• Electrical wiring; switches; plumbing; heating; roofing and building construction; chemical and pharmaceutical machinery; alloys (brass, bronze, Monel metal, beryllium-copper); electroplated protective coatings and undercoats for nickel, chromium, zinc, etc., cooking utensils; corrosion-resistant piping; insecticides; catalysts; antifouling paints. Flakes used as insulation for liquid fuels. Whiskers used in thermal and electrical composites.

• In a statistical analyses of the copper, brass and bronze industry, there are five primary markets: (1) building construction (41%), including building wiring, plumbing, and heating; air conditioning (qv) and commercial refrigeration; builders' hardware, and architectural materials; (2) electrical and electronic products (23%), for example power utilities, telecommunications, business electronics and lighting and wiring devices; (3) industrial machinery and equipment, (14%) such as in-plant equipment, industrial valves and fittings, nonelectrical instruments, off-highway vehicles, and heat exchangers; (4) transportation equipment (12%), including automobiles, trucks and buses, railroads, marine vehicles, aircraft, and aerospace vehicles; and consumer and general products (10%), such as appliances, cord sets, ordnance, consumer electronics, fasteners, coinage, utensils and cutlery, and miscellaneous items.

• In works of art; manufacture of bronzes, brass, other copper alloys, electrical conductors, ammunition, copper salts

• Substance listed with specific concentration in tattoo ink and/or permanent make up according to EU Commission Regulation 2020/2081. The concentration limit (by weight) is 0.025%.

Use classification

• Chemical Classes -> Inorganic substances

• Cosmetics -> Cosmetic colorant

Mineral material, extracted or made by synthesis depending on the process.

Basis: mineral INCIInternational name of cosmetic ingredients: the one printed on the pack. name or inorganic Colour Index pigment (CI 77000 to 77999).

Natural occurrence recorded in Wikidata (LOTUS database): 8 taxa; examples: Foeniculum vulgare, Theobroma cacao, Aeollanthus subacaulis var. linearis, Artemia salina, Crotalaria prolongata.

Manufacturing

• About 80% of the primary copper in the world comes from low-grade or poor sulfide ores, which are usually treated by pyrometallurgical methods, generally in the following sequence: (1) Beneficiation by froth flotation of ore to copper concentrate; (2) Optional partial roasting to obtain oxidized material or calcines; (3) two-stage pyrometallurgical extraction, (a) smelting concentrates to matte, (b) converting matte by oxidation to crude (converter or blister) copper; (4) Refining the crude copper, usually in two steps, (a) pyrometallurgically to fire-refined copper, (b) electrolytically to high-purity electrolytic copper.

• CRUSH, GRIND, AND CONCENTRATE COPPER ORES BY FLOTATION (SULFIDE ORES) OR LEACHING WITH ACID (OXIDE ORES); SMELT CONCENTRATES TO YIELD A BLISTER COPPER WHICH IS REFINED ELECTROLYTICALLY OR FIRE REFINED

• Copper + chlorine (reaction); copper hydroxide/cupric oxide/copper carbonate basic + hydrochloric acid (salt formation)

• Copper, blister (electrolysis); copper oxide ores + iron (acid leaching/cementation); copper oxide ores + sulphuric acid (acid leaching/electrolysis); copper sulphide ores (heap leaching/cementation); copper sulphide ores (heap leaching/electrolysis); copper-cobalt sulphide ores (ore roasting/ acid leaching/electrolysis); lead bullion (pyrometallurgical refining/Parkes process/Betterton-Kroll process; byproduct of lead production)

• Most copper is processed using a combination of mining, concentrating, smelting, and refining, or by leaching waste and solvent extraction-electrowinning...

Appearance

• Red metal; cubic

• Reddish, lustrous, ductile, malleable metal

• Reddish lustrous malleable odorless metallic solid.

• Reddish, lustrous, malleable, odorless solid.

Odour described

• Odorless /Copper dusts and mists/

Stability

• BECOMES DULL WHEN EXPOSED TO AIR. IN MOIST AIR GRADUALLY BECOMES COATED WITH GREEN BASIC CARBONATE.

Le repère de l'EFSA porte sur l'apport total d'une journée, alimentation et compléments.

In 2023, EFSA's Scientific Committee set an ADI of 0.07 mg/kg body weight for copper

Maximum daily dose per supplement in France: 2,000 µg, according to the Order of 9 May 2006.

The doses of the 2006 Order have not been revised since the amending Order of 14 November 2006, and some were annulled by the Conseil d'État in 2011; the DGCCRF accepted higher levels for some nutrients through guidelines published until January 2019, and an update of the Order is being prepared (ministerial answer published in the Official Journal on 11 February 2025).

Authorised health claims

• « Copper contributes to maintenance of normal connective tissues »
  Conditions: The claim may be used only for food which is at least a source of copper as referred to in the claim SOURCE OF [NAME OF VITAMIN/S] AND/OR [NAME OF MINERAL/S] as listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.
• « Copper contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism »
  Conditions: The claim may be used only for food which is at least a source of copper as referred to in the claim SOURCE OF [NAME OF VITAMIN/S] AND/OR [NAME OF MINERAL/S] as listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006
• « Copper contributes to normal functioning of the nervous system »
  Conditions: The claim may be used only for food which is at least a source of copper as referred to in the claim SOURCE OF [NAME OF VITAMIN/S] AND/OR [NAME OF MINERAL/S] as listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.
• « Copper contributes to normal hair pigmentation »
  Conditions: The claim may be used only for food which is at least a source of copper as referred to in the claim SOURCE OF [NAME OF VITAMIN/S] AND/OR [NAME OF MINERAL/S] as listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.
• « Copper contributes to normal iron transport in the body »
  Conditions: The claim may be used only for food which is at least a source of copper as referred to in the claim SOURCE OF [NAME OF VITAMIN/S] AND/OR [NAME OF MINERAL/S] as listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.
• « Copper contributes to normal skin pigmentation »
  Conditions: The claim may be used only for food which is at least a source of copper as referred to in the claim SOURCE OF [NAME OF VITAMIN/S] AND/OR [NAME OF MINERAL/S] as listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.
• « Copper contributes to the normal function of the immune system »
  Conditions: The claim may be used only for food which is at least a source of copper as referred to in the claim SOURCE OF [NAME OF VITAMIN/S] AND/OR [NAME OF MINERAL/S] as listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.
• « Copper contributes to the protection of cells from oxidative stress »
  Conditions: The claim may be used only for food which is at least a source of copper as referred to in the claim SOURCE OF [NAME OF VITAMIN/S] AND/OR [NAME OF MINERAL/S] as listed in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.

Official English text, as entered in the Union register. A claim may only be used under its conditions.

Union list: vitamin and mineral forms that may be used in a food supplement (Directive 2002/46/EC, Annex II).