IQF stands for Individually Quick Frozen

"Here the fruit is exposed to very high sub-zero air while traveling on a mesh stainless steel conveyor. This high velocity air causes the fruit to lift off and fall back down onto the conveyor keeping it as separate pieces. The extreme cold temperatures cause the pieces of fruit to rapidly freeze, yielding the IQF sliced or diced peaches as they emerge from the discharge end of the freezing tunnel. The fruit can then be sized one final time, inspected and packaged per customers' requirements. From here the fruit is transported and stored in our frozen warehouses until called for by our customers or used in our repackaging room to be converted into food service and retail size packages," says Jerry Widick.

As we left the IQF tunnel, and climbed down the narrow stairs to the main floor of the plant, Yvonne, and Jerry yelled a friendly "hi" to an older gentleman, dressed in protective gear and a hairnet. It was founder Jim Wood, a man with a reputation of being "hands on". I wanted to turn back and shake his hand, but he was gone already, involved in some task on the plant floor that required his attention.

The next stages are rewashing, sorting, random testing, slicing, cubing, quick freeze (not shown, final testing and documentation of batches, and final clearing for quality control, including brix testing (for sweetness), with a refractometer and bacterial testing in onsite labs.

"All of the fruit we process is graded at the time of packaging to guarantee that it meets our customers' quality specifications and our standards," said Jerry Widick. " We also have on-site, our own microbiology lab where our products are tested for the level of various microbes. We do standard tests for Total Plate Count, Yeast and Mold, Coliforms, and E. Coli. We also upon specific requests do test for Staphylococcus, Salmonella and other specific organisms. No product can be used or shipped without being cleared and released by our quality control labs." If any end user has any complaints about a shipment of product they received, they can call the company, and the company can trace back that exact shipment to the grading results of that product. This enables J.R. Wood to be able to trace at all times, what is going on, or happening to, the quality of the product they have processed.

This in-house micro lab and pesticide lab affords J. R. Wood a very close control of critical points of product quality. The on-site labs also allow a much faster turn around time for test reports than if we were to use an outside, commercial lab, to do these tests, often saving 7 to 10 days in obtaining results.

From the groves to the freezer, J.R. Woods has succeeded in retaining the natural, sweet, flavor of the peach.

From the orchard to grocery shelves our own Ellen Walsh discovers how freshpeaches can be processed and still retain their own natural, sweet, great flavor.