Objective Taking the content of copper in meat and meat product in Henan Province as an example, to demonstrate how to evaluate the dietary intake of copper from meat and meat product and its potential health risks in Henan population using the simple distribution assessment method. Methods 309 meat and meat product were randomed collected in 16 cities in Henan Province from 2014 to 2015. The copper contents were detected according to National Food Contamination and Harmful Factors in Risk Monitoring Manual. Using the published contribution rate of meat and meat products to dietary copper for reference, the dietary intake of copper in Henan population was evaluated by simple distribution model method with the 2010-2012 Chinese nutrition and health surveillance data. Results The mean concentration of copper in meat and meat product was 0.556 mg/100 g, and the median of that was 0.060 mg/100 g, the mean concentration of copper in entrails (1.561 mg/100 g) was the highest, while that in pork (0.068 mg/100 g) was the lowest. The mean and high level (P95) daily intake of copper from meat and meat product by Henan population were 0.046 and 0.144 mg/d, respectively. The copper intake from meat and meat product was adjusted to the copper intake from the full diet using a published data, and the result showed that the mean and P95 daily copper intakes from the full diet were 0.638 and 1.977 mg/d, respectively. The individual copper intake assessment result showed that 21.12% (801/3 792) of the population had a diet copper intake between recommended nutrient intake (RNI) and tolerable upper intake level (UL), 8.10% (307/3 792) of the population had a diet copper intake between estimated average requirement (EAR) and RNI, 69.75% (2 645/3 792) of the population had a diet copper intake below EAR, only 1.03% (39/3 792) of the population had a diet copper intake over UL. Conclusion There was a high risk of dietary copper deficiency in the whole Henan population, while the risk of excess dietary copper was very low.