Abstract: In recent years, with the significant rise in global obesity rate, the demand for sugar substitutes such as artificial sweeteners (AS) has soared, but the safety of AS remains controversial. New research from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the journal Nature suggests that long-term consumption of AS may have negative health effects. Currently, the standards on the use of AS in different countries are different, and the mechanism of the health impact of long-term AS consumption is not clear. Therefore, based on recent research results related to AS, this review paper focuses on the human health effect of AS and the current domestic and foreign standards on AS. It elaborates on the relationship between AS and gut microbes, obesity and diabetes, lipid metabolism, cardiovascular disease and cancer, and summarizes the current Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), US, EU, Japanese and Chinese standards on AS. In addition, this paper also discusses the key issue of how to determine standards on AS addition in the food industry in order to provide a reference for future research in this field.

Key words: artificial sweeteners; human health; current standard