Method for treating a product and a leak-detection device

Abstract

A method for detecting a leak in a resilient, semi-hard and hard package includes a test gas supplied to the package to subject the contents of the package to a first pressure. The package is then maintained for a predetermined time in a chamber having a gas pressure, and the presence of gas is detected in a measuring space in gas flow relationship with the chamber by a detection apparatus. In order for the method to be rapid enough to be suitable for detecting very small holes in packages and for use in production plants without a change in their operating rate, a hydrogen gas having a hydrogen gas concentration from 0.0001-6% by volume is used as the test gas supplied to the package, and the hydrogen gas concentration of the gas within the chamber is maintained below a reference concentration that is lower than the hydrogen gas concentration in the package immediately after the addition of hydrogen gas to the package. If hydrogen gas that has leaked outside the package into the chamber is detected and the package is considered defective, if the detected hydrogen gas content is higher by a predetermined value than the reference concentration after the predetermined time. The method also improves the shelf life of the quality of a product in the form of a foodstuff.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.