Abstract: In recent years, with the significant rise in global obesity rates, the demand for sugar substitutes such as artificial sweeteners (AS) has soared, but the safety of artificial sweeteners remains controversial. New research from the World Health Organization and the journal Nature suggests that long-term consumption of artificial sweeteners may have negative health effects. Currently, the standard of artificial sweetener use varies from country to country, and the mechanism of long-term health effects of artificial sweetener consumption is not clear. Therefore, based on the scientific research achievements in recent years, this paper focused on the effects of artificial sweeteners on human health and the status quo of domestic and foreign standards were reviewed. The article details the relationship between artificial sweeteners and gut microbes, obesity and diabetes, lipid metabolism, cardiovascular disease and cancer, and summarizes the current status of the standards for artificial sweeteners in the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the United States, the European Union, Japan and China based on this study. In addition, this paper also discusses the key issue of how to determine the standard of artificial sweetener in the food industry, in order to provide reference for the scientific research in this field.

Key words: AS, human health, standard status