Health Risk Assessment for Copper Chlorophyll: Public Health Professor Calls for Comprehensive Review

Copper chlorophyll, which became known to consumers nationwide because of the recent adulterated oil incident, may, under the Standards for the Scope of Use, Limits and Specifications of Food Additives, be added to chewing gum, bubble gum, dried kelp, processed fruits and vegetables, baked goods, jam, jelly, beverages and other products, but must not be added to oil products. Legislators and experts questioned today, "If copper chlorophyll is harmful to human health, why can it be added to bubble gum?" Wu Kun-yu, a professor in the Department of Public Health at National Taiwan University, stated publicly that a comprehensive health risk assessment of copper chlorophyll should be carried out.

Chang Guoo Company added copper chlorophyll to low-priced oil as a colorant and sold it fraudulently as high-priced olive oil, shocking all of Taiwan. Well-known major manufacturers Formosa and Ting Hsin bought olive oil from Chang Guoo and were also implicated, becoming the focus of questioning in the Legislative Yuan. Legislator Chiang Hui-chen questioned, "If copper chlorophyll is harmful to human health and unsuitable for addition to oil products, why can it be added to chewing gum?" Chiang Hui-chen further pointed out that most chewing gum lovers are children, and if excessive toxins accumulate, it could be detrimental to children's health.

Wu Kun-yu, a professor in the Department of Public Health at National Taiwan University, invited to attend the questioning, said that the nature of copper chlorophyll is that natural chlorophyll is extracted from plants, chemically modified, and copper is added, to be used as a colorant. At present it is mostly used in candy, jelly and other foods supplied for children to eat, but "children are still developing and are a rather sensitive group, so daily copper intake should not be too high." Wu Kun-yu believes it is necessary to conduct a health risk assessment of commercially sold bubble gum, jelly and other products with added copper chlorophyll.

Regarding the questions from legislators and scholars, Hsu Ming-neng, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare, said that comprehensive testing had already been conducted on commercially sold foods with added copper chlorophyll, and "copper content is all less than 0.4ppm," so there is no safety concern.

Information provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare pointed out that, according to the evaluation report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), copper chlorophyll complex showed no chronic toxicity in long-term rat trials. The World Health Organization recommends a maximum allowable daily intake per person of 15 milligrams per kilogram of body weight; calculated for a 60-kilogram adult, the maximum allowable daily amount is 900 mg. The copper chlorophyll in products on the market still falls within the safe range for human intake. However, whether long-term intake and accumulation in children's bodies will cause adverse effects still lacks relevant health risk assessment domestically.

Regarding the recent claims by Wei Chuan and Ting Hsin that their related oil products all "passed copper chlorophyll testing," Hsu Ming-neng also admitted that domestic technology for testing copper chlorophyll contained in olive oil is still being developed. No country in the world has a copper chlorophyll standard substance available for testing, and it must be synthesized by Taiwan itself. Manufacturers claiming on their own that copper chlorophyll testing has been completed may be questionable.