🦠 Stability of canned fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products — incubation test: 30 °C for 10 or 14 days, for export to tropical countries 55 °C for 5 days, PN-A-75052-03 (withdrawn)

Microbiology PN-90/A-75052/03

Overview

WHAT THE STANDARD COVERS. Scope from the PKN card, in full (our translation): "The method consists in incubating canned products at a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius for 10 or 14 days. For canned products intended for export to tropical countries, at a temperature of 55 degrees Celsius for 5 days. The interpretation of test results is given". The title speaks of testing the stability of canned products by the incubation test within the microbiological test methods for fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products. We did not have the text of the standard (2 pages): we do not know the sample size, how the containers are observed or the evaluation criteria.

STATUS (state of the cards on 29 September 2026). The card of PN-A-75052-03:1990 (Polish version) has the header "Withdrawn": published 13-11-1990, "Withdrawal date: 23-11-2011", 2 pages, price group A, Food, Agriculture and Forestry Sector, KT 38 for Fruit and Vegetable Products,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"; the card has no "Replaced by" field. The PKN search for "PN-A-75052" (29 September 2026) shows 22 items: all sheets of the series from PN-A-75052-01:1990 ("General provisions") to PN-A-75052-20:1990 are marked "Withdrawn", PN-A-75052:1980 — "Withdrawn and replaced by" the 1990 sheets, and PN-A-75052:1966 — by the 1980 edition. Today the PN collection has no standard for this test for fruit and vegetable products.

HOW MANY LABORATORIES AND IN WHAT FORM (copy of the accreditation-scope database, data loaded up to 17 September 2026, read on 29 September 2026). All notations of number 75052 with sheet 03: 15 entries at 11 laboratories. "PN-90/A-75052/03" — AB 079, AB 370, AB 444, AB 532, AB 1042 and AB 1087; "PN-A-75052-03:1990" — AB 452 (two entries) and AB 1095 (two entries: laboratories in Łajski and in Mysłowice); "PN-A-75052-3:1990" — AB 1033; "PN-90/A-75052.03" — AB 492; "PN-90/A-75052-03" — AB 705. AB 1042 also has two entries in which this sheet follows defence standards: "NO-89-A208:2015 p.4.6 PN – 90/A – 75052 -03" (sterilized soups) and "NO-89-A202:2015 p.4.6 PN - 90/A - 75052-03:1990" (sterilized vegetable-meat and meatless canned products). The "Laboratories" tab searches for notations BEGINNING WITH "PN-90/A-75052/03" and will show 6 laboratories — checked with the tab query on the labcoda.pl production server on 30 September 2026: 6; under "PN-A-75052-03" there are 2 (AB 452, AB 1095), and AB 492, AB 705 and AB 1033 appear only under their own notations. Current scopes on the PCA website (read on 29 September 2026, issues from 03.04.2025 to 04.08.2026): all entries stand in the valid issues and none is suspended; the entries have no numerical ranges.

SUBJECT AND TECHNIQUE. Fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products and canned goods — all 11 laboratories; also mushroom products — AB 452; in tin containers — AB 1033 and AB 1042. Technique in the scopes: "(incubation) test method" — AB 532 writes "culture method (incubation test)", and the second entry of AB 452 — "incubation test method; culture method".

ALONGSIDE THIS STANDARD. The same incubation test for other canned products stands in the scopes according to other standards: canned meat — PN-A-82055-5:1994 (13 laboratories, including 10 of these 11), canned fish — PN-A-86732:1992, usually point 2.3.11 (12 laboratories, including 9 of these 11), UHT milk and dairy products — PN-A-86034-03:1993 (AB 370, AB 1095). Stability of canned fruit and vegetables without this standard: AB 1138 — according to defence standard NO-89-A202:2015 point 4.6, AB 313 — according to procedure PB-PAZ/M-03 version 01 of 01.03.2021 (also canned fish and hermetically sealed containers of feed and milk), AB 1334 — in a flexible scope ("Standards"), and food in sealed or hermetic containers — AB 285 and AB 381 (flexible scope) and AB 1264 (procedure PB-25). The neighbouring sheet of the series, PN-A-75052-02:1990 (testing the tightness of hermetically sealed containers, also withdrawn), is cited by 10 laboratories, including 9 of these 11; the tightness test of canned meat according to PN-A-82055-4 has a separate entry in the Knowledge Base.

WHERE A SEEMINGLY CORRECT RESULT IS EASY TO GET. The card gives two test regimes: 30 °C for 10 or 14 days and 55 °C for 5 days for cans intended for export to tropical countries — the assessment "stable" without the incubation temperature and time does not say which of them was applied. Second, the standard has been withdrawn since 2011 without a successor: the laboratory applies a document that is not in the PN collection; AB 1042 combines it with point 4.6 of defence standards NO-89-A208:2015 and NO-89-A202:2015, and AB 1138 applies point 4.6 of NO-89-A202:2015 alone. Third, the incubation test here concerns fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products — for canned meat, fish and milk the laboratories cite other standards with other conditions that we do not know.

WHAT WE DO NOT GIVE. We did not have the text of the standard — PKN makes it available for a fee (2 pages). We do not give the sample size, how the containers are prepared and observed, the tests after incubation or the criteria for interpreting results.

Method principle

According to the PKN card, a sample of canned products in intact containers is incubated at 30 °C for 10 or 14 days, and cans intended for export to tropical countries at 55 °C for 5 days; the changes after incubation are assessed according to the interpretation given in the standard. We DO NOT GIVE the sample size, the observations or the criteria — we did not have the text of the standard.

Applications

• Stability of canned fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products — in the scopes of 11 laboratories (15 entries)
• Cans for export to tropical countries — the 55 °C / 5 days variant (PKN card)
• Sterilized soups and canned products according to defence standards NO-89-A208:2015 and NO-89-A202:2015 — AB 1042

Key parameters

Standard

Standard number

PN-A-75052-03:1990 (wersja polska) — wycofana 23-11-2011 bez następcy

Title (PL)

Przetwory owocowe, warzywne i warzywno-mięsne — Metody badań mikrobiologicznych — Badanie trwałości konserw metodą próby termostatowej

Title (EN)

Fruit, vegetable and vegetable-meat products — Microbiological test methods — Testing the stability of canned products by the incubation test

Step-by-step procedure

1. Document status

   PN-A-75052-03:1990 withdrawn on 23-11-2011 without a successor (PKN card, state on 29 September 2026); the laboratory applies it as a withdrawn document.

2. Sample

   Canned products in intact containers; we DO NOT GIVE the sample size.

3. Incubation

   30 °C for 10 or 14 days; cans for export to tropical countries — 55 °C for 5 days.

4. Assessment

   According to the interpretation of results given in the standard; we DO NOT GIVE the criteria. In the report — the incubation temperature and time.

Required equipment and apparatus

Health and safety (OHS)

• Containers after incubation may be swollen and under pressure — open them behind a shield; treat the contents as microbiologically contaminated material
• SUBSTANTIVE NOTE: the result "stable" depends on the test regime (30 °C and 10 or 14 days, or 55 °C and 5 days) — without it in the report results cannot be compared

Frequently asked questions