🦠 Tightness of hermetically sealed containers (tin and glass) with fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products — two methods using a vacuum desiccator and a test by immersion in water, with interpretation of results, PN-90/A-75052/02 (withdrawn standard)

Microbiology PN-90/A-75052/02

Overview

WHAT THE STANDARD COVERS. Scope from the PKN card, in full (our translation): "The tightness test of tin containers and glass containers is specified. Two test methods using a vacuum desiccator and a test by immersion in water are described. Interpretations of the results are given" (on the card without a full stop at the end). The standard belongs to the 1990 series PN-A-75052 "Fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products — Microbiological test methods" (sheets 01–20). We did not have the text of the standard; the clause numbers are known to us only from the accreditation scopes.

STATUS (state of the card on 30 September 2026). The card of PN-A-75052-02:1990 (Polish version) has the header "Withdrawn": published 13-11-1990, "Date of withdrawal: 23-11-2011", 2 pages, price group A, Food, Agriculture and Forestry Sector, KT 38 for Fruit and Vegetable Products, ICS 07.100.30, "Replaces: PN-A-75052:1980 - Polish version"; there is no "Replaced by" field. PKN search for "PN-A-75052" (30 September 2026): PN-A-75052:1980 — "Withdrawn and replaced by" the 1990 sheets, PN-A-75052:1966 — "Withdrawn and replaced by PN-A-75052:1980", and all visible sheets of the 1990 series, including this one, carry the label "Withdrawn" with no successor. In short: it was withdrawn on 23.11.2011; what replaced it — the PKN catalogue does not say; for the result it is the status of the reference document that changes, not the method itself.

HOW MANY LABORATORIES AND IN WHAT FORM (copy of the accreditation-scope database, data loaded up to 17 September 2026, read on 30 September 2026). 10 records at 10 laboratories — the same number of cells in the current PCA documents. Notations of the number: "PN-90/A-75052/02" — AB 370 (clauses 2.2.2 and 2.2.3), AB 444, AB 532, AB 705, AB 1042 (excluding clauses 2.2.3 and 2.2.4); "PN -90/A-75052/02 pkt. 2.2.2" (with a space) — AB 1087; "PN-90/A-75052.02 z wyłączeniem p. 2.2.4" — AB 492; "PN-A-75052-02:1990" — AB 076 and AB 079; "PN-A-75052-2:1990 z wyłączeniem pkt. 2.2.3 i pkt. 2.2.4" — AB 1033. The "Laboratories" tab looks for notations that BEGIN with "PN-90/A-75052/02" and will show 5 laboratories: AB 370, AB 444, AB 532, AB 705, AB 1042; under "PN-A-75052-02" — 2, under "PN-A-75052-2", "PN -90/A-75052/02" and "PN-90/A-75052.02" — 1 each; checked with the tab's queries on the production server labcoda.pl on 30 September 2026 — the same numbers as in the copy. Current scopes on the PCA website (read on 30 September 2026, issues from 03.04.2025 to 04.08.2026): all entries are in the issues in force and none is suspended.

QUANTITY AND ITEMS. Name of the quantity: tightness (AB 076, AB 079), tightness of containers (AB 370), tightness of hermetically sealed containers (AB 444, AB 492, AB 705), tightness of cans (AB 532, AB 1042, AB 1087), tightness of the container (AB 1033). Technique: vacuum method — all 10. Items: fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products or canned goods — 9 laboratories; AB 076 — only canned vegetable and vegetable-meat products in metal containers; AB 1033 and AB 1042 — in tin containers. The entries have no numerical ranges. Which clauses of the standard correspond to which method we do not know: laboratories cite clauses 2.2.2 and 2.2.3 (AB 370) or 2.2.2 alone (AB 1087), exclude 2.2.4 (AB 492) or 2.2.3 and 2.2.4 (AB 1033, AB 1042).

ALONGSIDE THIS STANDARD. In the same 10 laboratories the tightness of canned meat is tested according to PN-A-82055-4 (12 records; 13 laboratories in total), and in 7 of them the tightness of canned fish — according to PN-A-86732, mostly clause 2.3.10 (9 laboratories in total; AB 492 and AB 532 without a clause); both standards have separate entries in the Knowledge Base, as does the stability of canned goods in the incubation test according to PN-A-75052-03. The tightness of canned goods according to the defence standards NO-89-A201, NO-89-A202, NO-89-A203 and NO-89-A208 (clause 4.7) is in the scopes of AB 076, AB 1042 and AB 1138; AB 1138 tests canned fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products only according to NO-89-A202:2015 clause 4.7, without this standard.

WHERE A SEEMINGLY CORRECT RESULT IS EASY TO GET. First — status: a report citing PN-A-75052-02 refers to a document withdrawn on 23.11.2011 without a successor — this has to be stated. Second — which method: the standard has three ways of testing (two with a vacuum desiccator and immersion in water), and laboratories exclude different clauses — a result without the clause does not say which method produced it. Third — items: the standard concerns fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products in tin and glass containers; for canned meat and fish laboratories cite other standards (PN-A-82055-4, PN-A-86732). Fourth — notation of the number: five forms of notation mean that a search by one of them misses some of the laboratories.

WHAT WE DO NOT GIVE. We did not have the text of the standard — we do not give the course of any of the three methods (vacuum level, time, number of containers), the content of clauses 2.2.2–2.2.4, the evaluation criteria or the interpretation of results. The card gives only the Polish title — the English title in the header of the entry is our translation.

Method principle

According to the PKN card, the tightness of a hermetically sealed container (tin or glass) is checked by one of two methods using a vacuum desiccator or by immersing the container in water, and the result is interpreted according to the standard. The laboratories have the vacuum method in their scopes. Details are NOT GIVEN — we did not have the text of the standard.

Applications

• Canned goods and fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products in hermetically sealed containers — in the scopes of 10 laboratories, always by the vacuum method
• Checking the tightness of tin and glass containers — according to the scope on the PKN card

Key parameters

Standard

Standard number

PN-A-75052-02:1990 (wersja polska)

Title (PL)

Przetwory owocowe, warzywne i warzywno-mięsne — Metody badań mikrobiologicznych — Badanie szczelności opakowań hermetycznie zamkniętych

Title (EN)

Fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products — Microbiological test methods — Testing the tightness of hermetically sealed containers

Step-by-step procedure

1. Status

   PN-A-75052-02:1990 withdrawn on 23-11-2011, with no successor in the PKN catalogue (state of the card on 30 September 2026) — state this in the report.

2. Choice of method

   Vacuum method in a desiccator (two variants) or immersion in water — give the clause of the standard in the report; the course is NOT GIVEN.

3. Evaluation

   Interpretation of the result according to the standard — criteria NOT GIVEN.

Required equipment and apparatus

Health and safety (OHS)

• A test without particular chemical hazards — care when working with vacuum (desiccator) and with glass containers
• SUBSTANTIVE NOTE: standard withdrawn on 23.11.2011 without a successor; laboratories exclude different clauses of the standard — the report must state the method used

Frequently asked questions