The heavy metal contamination of soil is one of the most pressing concerns in the debate about food security and food safety in Europe. Maize, also known as corn, constitute a staple food in many regions of the world. The aim of this paper was to determine the capacity of maize (Zea mays L.) grainstoaccumulate Cu, in order to evaluate the potential risk for human consume and to obtained informations regarding the soil pollution in this area. The studied area was Tarnaveni (Mures County, Romania). In soil, the copper content, calculated on the dry basis, ranged from 13.17 ppm to 52.96 ppm for 0-20 cm depth and from 14.01 to 44.82 ppm for 20-40 cm depth. The soil copper contents are exceeding the value of 20 ppm (the normal contents in soil, for Romania) but do not exceed the value of 100 ppm (the Alert threshold values for Romania). Regarding the copper content (mgKg-1 dry weight) in corn, the values are between 4.87 to 25.40 ppm, and five from seven samples exceed the permissible limit of copper for plants (10 mg/kg recommended by WHO). This study allows to obtain informations regarding the copper pollution level in this area
