Global distribution and potential risks of artificial sweeteners (ASs) with widespread contaminant in the environment: The latest advancements and future development

As an emerging pollutant, artificial sweeteners (ASs) are gradually discovered in the environments. It is significant to analyze the latest advancements and future development of ASs. This work reviews the current state of knowledge on the analytical methodologies, distribution, ecotoxicity and removal of ASs in the environments. The important conclusions are that i) The popular approaches to analyze ASs are Liquid Chromatography-mass spectrometry detection analysis combined with solid phase extraction; ii) The population density and sources could change the fate of ASs; iii) The results of toxicity tests indicated the potential risks of ASs, especially the high magnification factor of degradation by-products is worth worrying about; iv) Sucralose are resistant (followed by ACE) during physical, chemical and biological degradation as well as practical application processes. Finally, knowledge gaps and future research directions are proposed for monitoring, transformation processes, and the development of ecological risk assessments of ASs in the environments.