Thoughts On Natural Products Expo West Coast 2014…Savory Sells!!

This is my third year working at the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim and although much is still the same, there were a few pleasant (and not so pleasant) surprises this year.

I had the pleasure of attending the Expo East earlier this year. It was easy for me, because I was staying in the hotel connected to the expo. Every day, I would get up, walk to the expo, handle my work, collect samples and head back to the hotel to rest.

The Expo West has over 3,000 exhibitors showcasing their wares and probably 10 times the attendance that Expo East has, and that was definitely seen and felt by myself and other attendees this year. Transportation to and from the expo seemed much more difficult than I had remembered and parking seemed a lot more scarce. But I guess that means a lot of people wanted to be there, which is a good thing for all the exhibitors.

There were a few key trends in this year’s expo. Some are new trends and some are not. One of the major trends I spotted that was not new was the use of “plant-based”, along with “paleo” and “gluten-free” items aplenty. Brands such as Vega tout their plant based proteins, MegaFood has its plant based whole food vitamins, Natural Vitality has their plant sourced minerals, etc. etc.

There also appeared to be a fair amount of meatless meats. Beyond Meat had samples of their tacos made with “beef”, but the one meatless meat I thought was kind of cool was made by Neat. They have a soy-less (yay!) gluten-free meatless mix that uses garbanzo beans and pecans. There were a few other brands, but I did not have the time (or the stomach space) to try them all.

One major new trend I saw at this years expo was the abundance of SAVORY foods. Last year there was so much sweet, it was kind of cool to see this new trend kick off. One of my favorite savory items was a honey mustard trail mix bar created by KIND. They have a new line out called STRONG, which focuses on savory nut bars with honey mustard, jalapeno, thai, and barbecue flavors. They are actually really delicious and better for someone with a savory tooth who has that “salty” craving. I also was able to sample Kettle Brands new sriracha flavored potato chips as well as a sriracha flavored popcorn and a kale flavored popcorn, both very savory and very interesting. I am not quite sure when and where these will be in stores anytime soon, but if I find out before the savory connoisseurs of Los Angeles do, I will keep you posted.

Another new item I was able to sample was Phoney Baloney’s coconut bacon, which is essentially pieces of bacon seasoned with savory spices to give off a sort of “bacon” flavor. I can tell you for a fact I have seen this item at Whole Foods, however, they added new flavors to the line, like a candied version, which is not in stores yet.

On the supplement end, I was not able to spend as much time in that segment as I would have liked, but I can say that whole food based supplements, such as MegaFood (which I mentioned before) are big right now, as well as digestive enzymes (which I needed after all that weird food combining!) and the ever popular probiotics supplements. I did not visit many of these booths for samples, but did see a variety of them as I walked the floor in my free time.

Of course, I cannot forget about the quinoa, chia and chocolate. There are always new varieties of these products. I met a company at the NEXT Pavilion, which is the floor for brand new items, called Iheartkeenwah, which sells an all natural quinoa cluster snack. They had a variety of flavors, and how can you go wrong with a chocolate sea salt quinoa cluster? I know a packaged good is a packaged good, but I applaud this company and others for trying to create a snack that is better for the masses, because let’s face it, people are going to snack, so I would rather see them eating IheartKeenwah over Oreos. At least the ingredients are as natural as they could get while keeping the product tasting good.

Another inspiring item was a green juice line by Vibrant Earth. There were TONS of green juices and cleanses at the Expo this year, but this one stood out to me because the girl who created the line was from Colorado like myself and is also a registered dietitian. What she created is a juice line like most others, juices with kale, carrots, ginger, beets, spinach, etc…but the one ingredient she added to all her juices is flax oil. The flax oil is high in antioxidants and Omega-3’s and helps with digestion, transport and absorption of the nutrients in the juices. I thought this was very clever, seeing as I haven’t seen a juice yet besides this one that thought of including the healthy fat for vitamin absorption.

Anyhow, this blog could become a novel if I let it, but overall, the expo is a great place to see what is new in nutrition and it was fun for me to network and make new contacts. Unfortunately, I was sick for the last day so I was unable to get as many samples of products as I would have liked, but I did enjoy my time and hopefully next year I will attend the show either with a product of my own or with the backing of a corporation or company of my own.