One of the best venues for tracking trends is the Natural Products Expo West, a trade show of more than 3,000 exhibitors showcasing new foods and beverages in hopes of getting distributors.
The trade show used to be all about startups, food entrepreneurs and “mom and pop” companies. It’s still a platform for emerging brands, but now major food companies set up large booths to launch new products. It also attracts vendors from around the world. If you want to know about the future of food, it’s here.
I recently returned from Expo West and sampled a large array of innovative new products. The big buzzwords of the show: plant-based, regenerative, upcycled, family farms, ethically sourced, small batch, fermented, sprouted and superfood (although I’m growing a bit weary of the overused “superfood” descriptor).
Here are the major food trends I spotted at Expo West. Look for some of these products coming soon to a store near you.
New Ways to Eat Nuts
Nuts were featured in a surprisingly large number of exhibits — from flavored nuts, sprouted nuts and nut butters to plant-based nut milks, including two new brands of pecan milk. Daily Crunch sampled new dill pickle sprouted almonds and pepitas, one of many pickle-flavored items on the exhibit floor, including pickle juice. The bright green Turkish pistachio butter was like baklava in a jar.
Lesser-known, exotic nuts also made an appearance, including Brazil’s baruka nuts and Peru’s sacha inchi nuts. Gut Nuts from Philosopher Foods were hailed as the world’s first fermented and dehydrated nuts, offering umami taste and gut-friendly postbiotics.
[Read: Which Milk Is the Healthiest?]
Fermented Foods and Sauces
Many products on the exhibit floor were fermented, but the clear winner was the Korean fermented cabbage kimchi. This fermented vegetable was shown in many forms, including jars and pouches of prepared kimchi and the paste for making your own kimchi with fresh cabbage. Kimchi also filled dumplings and flavored sauces, from mayonnaise to hot sauces. The fermented Korean gochujang and Japanese miso were also frequently highlighted, including miso mustard, salad dressing, butter and broth.
Celebrating Real Dairy
While plant-based was certainly a mega-trend at the show — especially dairy-free milks and cheese — real dairy showed up in some impressive ways. Good Culture launched a new probiotic cream cheese, and Alexander Family Farm introduced a grass-fed probiotic kefir, one of the innovation award-winners at the show. Butter had a big presence, including Churn butter, which was founded by a chef to encourage the use of the spread in cooking. The flavor-forward varieties included truffle, black garlic, pesto and cacio e pepe with parmesan, pecorino and black pepper.
Next Generation Snacks
Potato chip alternatives
It was hard to miss the better-for-you chips made with everything but potatoes, from kelp to mushrooms, eggplants, broccoli, cauliflower, beets and okra. Protein was a popular attribute for snacks, especially in the form of snack balls. Products included Simply Fuel Protein Balls, Scott’s Protein Balls and Frooze Balls.
Meat was also a popular ingredient in protein snacks. Wilde Protein Chips featured chicken breast, egg whites and bone broth. Naera Icelandic Snacks shared its latest protein snack made with fish jerky, and Baja Vida introduced a line of chef-crafted beef jerky and beef sticks including street taco and salsa fresca.
Snacking from the sea
Tinned fish was a big trend on TikTok, and it was definitely trending at Expo West. But the trend went beyond the can. Scout introduced single-serve seafood snacks in portable paper cartons filled with wild-caught tuna and crunchy toppings, including chili crisp and za’atar.
The Honey Smoked Fish Company unveiled Salmon Stackers, a snack box with omega-3-packed smoked salmon, lemon and chive cream cheese and rice crackers. Seaweed was also made snackable, including crunchy roasted seaweed, along with seaweed-infused crackers, chips and puffs. Apart from snacks, seaweed showed up in burgers, sauces, salad dressings and seasonings.
[See: 13 Best Fish: High in Omega-3s — and Environment-Friendly.]
Plant-Based Seafood
While real seafood was widely featured, so were plant-based alternatives, including a new line of plant-based tuna poke bowls and sushi rolls from Konscious Foods. The California Rolls, made with the root vegetable konjac and pea protein, won the best frozen food product at the show. Jinka introduced plant-based tuna spread and plant-based calamari. A company called Avafina Organics unveiled an innovative vegan caviar called Chiaviar that’s made with chia seeds and seaweed.
Mushroom Mania
The mighty mushroom continues its dominance as a trend. Mushrooms were featured in coffee, tea, kombucha, cocoa, tonics, elixirs, powders and tinctures (concentrated mushroom extracts). Mushrooms were also a celebrated ingredient in chips, jerky, burgers, chocolate and the first mushroom-powered plant milk called Shroom Junkie.
One product that generated a lot of buzz during the expo was Meati, a new plant-based meat alternative made from mushroom root, or mycelium. The company’s “classic steak,” which won the best new meat alternative award at the show, was surprisingly good with a true meat-like texture. Meati also sampled a plant-based crispy chicken cutlet on a bao bun based on a recipe from famed Korean chef David Chang of Momofuku. Chang is one of several chefs collaborating with Meati.
“Better” Chocolate
I noticed an incredible amount of chocolate on the exhibit floor, and everyone seemed to have a different angle to help set them apart. Many hyped single-origin, bean-to-bar and fair trade. Awake Chocolate and Wakeup! Bars boasted about their caffeine that equals the amount in coffee or energy drinks. Vgan was one of several chocolate brands that touted its plant-based status, although all chocolate is inherently plant-based except milk chocolate. FourX Better Chocolate promoted its addition of adaptogens, vitamins and minerals. Momo’s “Bean to Bliss” chocolate bars touted its CBD content. Vine to Bar chocolates were a unique product sweetened with upcycled Chardonnay pressed grapes. I especially liked Beyond Good single-origin dark chocolate that works directly with cocoa farmers in Madagascar and Uganda.
Convenient Middle-Eastern Food
Flavors from the Levant — including Lebanon, Syria and Jordan — were popular, especially products that made it easier to enjoy Middle Eastern favorites at home. Mighty Sesame Co. introduced squeezable bottles of tahini, including a version with harissa. I spotted several brands of falafel mixes to jump-start making this chickpea dish. Fabalish showcased ready-made frozen falafel bites, along with dips made from aquafaba, the watery liquid leftover from cooking chickpeas. Al’Fez shared Middle Eastern sauces, marinades and paste. Canaan Palestine promoted tapenades, freekeh, za’ater and other specialty foods grown on small family farms in the West Bank.
Supercharged Coffee
What is going on with coffee? Chocolates and energy bars are adding caffeine to act as coffee substitutes, and coffee is also trying to reinvent itself. Super Coffee is a bottled coffee with added MCT oil, L-theanine, vitamins D, E, B12 and other nutrients that is marketed as a pre-workout brew.
Caffeine Army Smart Energy Coffee is a powdered mix with MCT oil powder, collagen peptides, B vitamins and other nutrients. This instant coffee made promises of mental and physical well-being. Other canned cold brews included Brain Java House Brew, NuRange Cold Brew with Benefits and Jibby Cold Brew with CBD.
Reimagined Produce
Fruit takes on new forms
Fruit was a popular ingredient in beverages and snacks, including banana milk, freeze-dried strawberries, pineapple chips, dehydrated mango with probiotics, acai smoothie cubes, superfood smoothie pops, and upcycled “ugly” dried fruit snacks.
Dole unveiled its first retail product of Dole Whip, a favorite Disney Park snack. Made with real fruit, the frozen treat will be available in pineapple, mango and strawberry flavors. Dole also introduced probiotic fruit sodas, Digestive Bliss fruit drinks and Energy Delight fruit drinks with green tea, B vitamins and 80 mg of caffeine per serving.
Pasta alternatives
Many companies were attempting to build a better noodle, or least one that will appeal to the carb-conscious. ZENB shared its line of pasta made with yellow peas; Banza presented their chickpea pasta. Palmini makes linguine, angel hair pasta and lasagna noodles with hearts of palm. Other companies shared pastas made with edamame, beets, red lentils, tomatoes, sweet red pepper, broccoli, spinach, black carrots and green bananas.
Natural Sweeteners
Honey seemed to be everywhere, including Manuka honey from New Zealand, mono-floral honey from Hawaii, traceable hive-to-bottle honey, raw hemp honey with CBD and hot honey infused with chili peppers. Maple syrup also had a fairly big showing, including Vermont and Canadian maple syrups and artisan-style syrups that were infused, smoked and barrel-aged.
Several booths promoted dates, which are increasingly used as a sweetener. Exhibitors showcased pitted dates along with date paste, date sugar and date syrup. Dates were also blended with tahini in a new spread called Datehini.
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Food and Beverage Trends for 2023 originally appeared on usnews.com
