Bangor Daily News - Ellsworth Bureau

Years ago, three little letters revolutionized the blueberry business. IQF. Individually Quick Frozen.The process renders frozen berries just as sweet, succulent, and easy to use as fresh. And, we were the first to do it.Admittedly, we had a head start. After all, our family's been up to its eyebrows in blueberries for four generations. Chief executive officer Roy P. Allen II continues the family tradition of hands-on management and devotion to excellence he learned as a youngster. Now, younger Allens, too, prune, fertilize, freeze, and ship, making sure our berries are second to none.Allen's combines the stability, volume, and consistent quality you'd expect from a larger company with the flexibility and personal touches of a smaller company. Customers all over the world-even the most exacting-choose Allen's because they know they can count on us to meet their needs.Our plant features only the latest, most efficient equipment. Fresh processing, laser sorting, quality inspection: our berries experience it all in a matter of minutes-up to 24, 000 pounds an hour. Freezing perfectly preserves each berry at a precise temperature, maintaining the health benefits and avoiding variations that can disturb the flavor and texture of delicate fruit. Our huge storage facility holds more than 16 million pounds of berries-an entire year's harvest. So there's no need to truck berries from warehouse to warehouse, risking temperature changes at every step.