MIGRATION OF STYRENE FROM POLYSTYRENE FOOD CONTAINERS INTO FOOD SIMULANTS: A META-ANALYSIS

Abstract

The use of polystyrene containers in this modern world has increased tremendously. As a result of our fast-paced environment, people want to go meals and drinks, hence the use of plastic take away containers. Studies included in this meta-analysis were selected from various database. The amount of migrated styrene was obtained from the studies and the overall effect of styrene migration was determined. The result of the meta-analysis in this study indicates that higher amount of residual styrene is present in polystyrene containers than the amount of styrene migrating from polystyrene containers into food simulants. The presence of heterogeneity indicated that more migrated styrene was present in food simulants than residual styrene in polystyrene containers. The rate of styrene migration was observed to obey Fick’s second law of diffusion with increasing amount of styrene from polystyrene containers into food simulants as the contact time increases.