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Copper
A trace mineral that works as a cofactor for more than twelve enzymes, with eight authorised EU health claims. In our library it is there for a reason none of those claims covers: to keep pace with zinc. It sits in one formula, still in development, next to 15 mg of zinc, because zinc taken every day for weeks can lower the copper you absorb.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
Eight claims. All of them authorised.
These are the eight claims on the EU register for copper, and we do not paraphrase them into something that sounds stronger. Our file records them in Spanish, so the English here is a word-for-word translation. All eight carry the same condition: the product has to be at least a source of copper under Regulation (EC) 1924/2006. Our file notes an NRV of 1 mg for copper, without its source yet; on that figure our 1.5 mg is 150% of the NRV, well above the 15% a "source of" claim needs.These are the eight wordings on the EU register for copper, translated word for word from our Spanish file. All eight need the product to be at least a source of copper. On the 1 mg NRV our file notes, our 1.5 mg is 150%.
None of the eight is a claim about testosterone, and copper is not in Low testosterone for any of them. It is there to balance the zinc next to it. The testosterone claim in that formula belongs to zinc, not to copper.
WHY BISGLYCINATE
The claims are the same. The competition is not.
The eight claims attach to copper, not to a particular salt, so the form is not a claim argument and we do not use it as one. Our file prefers copper bisglycinate, copper chelated to glycine, and notes that it is absorbed better than sulfate because it competes less with zinc and iron. That matters in a formula that carries 15 mg of zinc. Our notes put its absorption at 55 to 75%; it dissolves in water and is neutral in taste.
The form our notes measure bisglycinate against. They record it as absorbed less well, with more competition from zinc and iron. It has no entry of its own in our file.
Our file lists copper gluconate among the names for this ingredient, but it has no entry of its own, so we have nothing to tell you about it yet.
Copper chelated to glycine. Our notes record 55 to 75% absorbed and less competition with zinc and iron than sulfate. It dissolves in water and is neutral in taste.
Better absorption is what our notes record, not an authorised claim, so you will not read it on a label. Our notes put its time in your tissues at around 26 days, and it leaves your body mainly in the stool; no half-life in blood is on file. There are two open points we would rather write down: our own files mark bisglycinate as not stable in liquid, while VION doses are liquid, and the choice of form is still waiting for a human review in our file.Better absorption is not an authorised claim. Our files also mark bisglycinate as not stable in liquid, and the choice of form is still waiting for review.
WHERE IT APPEARS
One of the twenty-nine carries copper.
ADAPT-07 is a blood-test formula for low testosterone, and it is still in development: the testosterone test it depends on is not in our current blood panel yet. Copper is there only because of the 15 mg of zinc beside it. It is served in the morning, preferably with food, in 8-week courses followed by a 4-week pause, no more than three a year.
THE CEILING
5 mg a day in the EU. Germany suggests 1.
EFSA's upper limit for copper is 5 mg a day for adults, and it applies to your total, not to each formula on its own. Our one formula serves 1.5 mg, well under it. Germany's BfR takes a more cautious line and proposes no more than 1 mg a day of copper in a food supplement, whatever the salt; our 1.5 mg is above that, a dose raised to keep up with the zinc. Our file holds no figure for how much copper an average diet brings, so we cannot show you where your total lands.EFSA's limit is 5 mg a day for adults, and our one formula serves 1.5 mg. Germany's BfR proposes 1 mg for a supplement, and we are above it.
Our engine rule R3: when zinc reaches 15 mg a day long term and zinc is more than 15 times the copper, the plan adds at least 1 mg of copper, or holds the formula back if no copper is available. Low testosterone serves 15 mg of zinc with 1.5 mg of copper, 10 to 1. EFSA sets no number for this ratio: our file takes 10 to 1 from USDA literature and clinical nutrition practice, and records it as our own design choice.
Zinc makes your gut produce a protein that traps copper, so taken for weeks it can reduce the copper you absorb. Our zinc file records that 50 mg or more a day for four to six weeks has caused copper deficiency, with anaemia that does not respond to iron and damage to the spinal cord and nerves.
Avoid copper if you have Wilson's disease or your liver does not work properly. Do not exceed 5 mg a day, the EFSA limit for adults, or the daily dose, keep it out of reach of young children, and do not use it in place of a varied, balanced diet. The one formula that carries it adds its own exclusions: it is never assigned to women, and it is not given if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, under 18, or have prostate cancer, liver disease, heart disease, a thyroid disorder or hyperandrogenism, or if you take sedatives or a vitamin K antagonist anticoagulant. Beyond these, our copper file lists no further contraindications yet, which means not documented, not ruled out. It contains none of the fourteen allergens that must be declared in the EU, and our file records no known intolerance or diet it is incompatible with.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Documented pairs, not hunches.
Copper is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. None of them is documented as a pair yet, out of the 443 pairs on file. Its most important partner, zinc, is handled by an engine rule instead. The files of other ingredients mention copper in passing: manganese, selenium and vitamin B12 as partners it works alongside, and iron, vitamin C and L-cysteine as the ones below.
Taken every day for weeks, zinc reduces how much copper you absorb. The pair is not in our pair table; our rule R3 covers it instead, adding copper whenever zinc reaches 15 mg a day, and Low testosterone carries both in the same dose at 10 to 1.
These come from the other ingredients' files, not from our pair table. Our iron file notes that copper is needed to mobilise iron, through ceruloplasmin, and that high doses of iron may lower copper; our vitamin C file notes that long-term high doses may lower that same ceruloplasmin. Both are rated mild. Our L-cysteine file keeps it 1 to 2 hours away from copper, iron and zinc, which speed up its oxidation.
Our medication matrix holds no entry for copper yet, and its ingredient file lists no medication either. That is a gap, not a clean bill. The formula that carries it is not given with sedatives or with vitamin K antagonist anticoagulants, and the app asks about medication before assigning it.
443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026Read the introduction to Copper gluconate →
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
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What it is, what we are allowed to say about it, which formulas carry it, what it reacts with and where each of those statements comes from. No proprietary blends, no hidden amounts.