## 1 Introduction
Styrene is an irritant compound of the mucous membranes of the nose and throat, causing wheezing and coughing through repeated long-term inhalation. This can further lead to an onset of depression by affecting the central nervous system with many other symptoms such as headache, sickness, and fatigue. The general population is exposed to styrene in air, drinking water and through consumption of food contained in styrene based (FCMs). This is mainly due to small-sized molecules and the lipophilic nature of styrene, which promotes its absorption and distribution within the body. The benzene ring also serves as a vehicle for penetration through the blood-brain barrier. This occurs mainly through inhalation with ingestion and skin exposure being the other common routes for toxicity [21; 22; 23]. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified styrene as a possible carcinogenic to humans. More than 90% of styrene forms the metabolite styrene 7,8-oxide through a metabolic pathway involving hepatic oxidation by cytochrome P450 [24]. A comprehensive review of this metabolite highlighted a strong correlation to human cancer risk. It stimulates cell replication and leads to cell proliferation [21] as well as inducing single-strand RNA breaks in human white blood cells and promoting cytogenetic damage, which includes chromosomal breaks [24]. As a result of the toxicological profile associated with styrene, extensive studies have been carried out to investigate the level of migration of the monomer into food. [PERSON] et al. [20] studied the migration from different (PS) foam materials into oil and 8% ethanol simulant at different experimental conditions. It was reported that migration increased as the storage time increased; an increase of 1.9-fold was observed from the 1 st to the 4 th day of storage, and an increase of 3.1-fold from the 1 st to the 10 th day [20]. [PERSON] et al. [25] carried out tests on milk products in (PS) packaging with 0 to 80% fat content under defined storage conditions. It was found that the migration level of styrene was dependent on the fat content in the milk. It was also concluded that pure water does not simulate the behaviour of milk even at low-fat content, but adding ethanol to the water increases the lipophilic character and thus better mimics the fat-related migration behaviour of milk [25]. The issue of styrene migration has been highlighted over the past 30 years by many published works on the determination of styrene in bottled water and selected foods such as wheat, tomatoes, peaches, olive oil, yogurt and cheese in (PS) packaging by [PERSON] [26], [PERSON] et al., [27], [PERSON] et al., [28; 29] and [PERSON] et al. [30]. Nile Red is a lipid soluble fluorescent dye, which has been commonly used in situ for staining of the lipid content of animal cells and microorganisms [31]. [PERSON] et al. (2017) [32] introduced a rapid screening method for microplastics in environmental samples based on adsorption of Nile Red onto plastic surfaces. As a result, microplastic fragments of a range of sizes down to a few \(\upmu\)m became clearly visible in blue light, which allowed them to be differentiated from other debris and made it easier to assess micro-plastic abundance [33]. This approach has the potential to highlight microplastics in many other contexts and is being widely adopted for this purpose as awareness of microplastic contamination becomes more widespread. This work aims to investigate the effects of temperature, food composition and contact times on the migration of the styrene monomer from poly(styrene) food contact materials into food simulants. We present a study of the detection of styrene and poly(styrene) into foodstuffs from some selected food packaging material, varying temperature, and fat content of the foodstuff in question. Increased demand for takeaway and hot food delivery has meant that sources of oligomeric- and micro-plastics from packaging are a potential hazard to the food chain that has thus far been underexplored.