The Natural Products Expo West show in Anaheim was in six (count ’em, six) Halls this year. Seemed like about 2 1\/2 halls devoted to actual food, one hall to nutritional supplements and the remainder to “living.”<\/p>\n
Dried seaweed snacks from Korea and Japan were big — lots of booths showing these, as was popcorn — popcorn chips, popcorn cakes (sort of like second generation Rice Krispie treats), and lots of gluten, lactose, nut-free products.<\/p>\n
Soy wasn’t so big, but hemp was — hemp milk, hemp cheese, hemp bread and crackers, even a hemp yogurt and frozen dessert.<\/p>\n
Didn’t seem to have a lot of emphasis on “vegan” or “veggie” — more towards the “-free” (so, marketing more of a dairy-free, egg- free, whey- and lactose-free “cheese” ravioli, rather than calling it “vegan”- although it is labeled “vegan” and “kosher.”)<\/p>\n
Not a lot of synthetic meats — more on the ethnic, veggie side, such as ready-to-eat falafel, vegetable fritters or patties, sweet potato patties, vegan-stuffed pastas or potato dumplings (although billed as the “-free” stuff, rather than vegan).<\/p>\n
Water and tea in every conceivable form and packaging was a big deal.<\/p>\n
And, as you can imagine, green, green, green!<\/p>\n
Hain had an enormous booth. Soy Dreams was pushing almond and coconut frozen desserts a lot.<\/p>\n
Jyoti was showing two new products, Mung Dal with spinach, and Channa Dal with zucchini.<\/p>\n
For information about VRG polls, see
\nhttp:\/\/www.vrg.org\/nutshell\/faq.htm#poll<\/a><\/p>\n