Over 24,000 natural food enthusiasts attended this festival of conscious capitalism.\u00a0 There is no mistaking that this is not a \u201cbig food\u201d show.\u00a0 Even the largest exhibitors are featuring collections of brands and products all designed for a unique consumer target. Everyone has a story about food, family and the passion that ignited their business.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\nSustainability As A Movement<\/b><\/b><\/h3>\n
Whether it\u2019s the Founder and CEO of Hampton Foods, a leading food technology company on a mission, or the Guerilla Gardener, Ron Finley, reclaiming the empty lots in south central Los Angeles to create community gardens, sustainability is a movement that is lighting the path for the food industry.\u00a0 The common goal is making it easy to do the right thing (and creating some level of consensus on what the right thing is).<\/p>\n
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There was much discussion that wisdom has returned to the conversation about nutrition with real foods in the spotlight rather than foods manufactured to meet a dietary fad.\u00a0 Minimal ingredients and clean labels are expected among those exhibiting at this show.\u00a0 Ancient has become the new \u201cnew\u201d with the future looking more like the past.\u00a0 Words like simple, honest and naked were used to describe many offerings at this show.<\/p>\n
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Among the hottest selling books were those debunking myths that have become nutrition reality.\u00a0 Speakers at one session were unafraid to make bold claims like \u201cfat is back!\u201d\u00a0 There is a growing belief that fat and even saturated fat do not cause heart disease; it is cheap, heated, low quality oil that tainted an entire category as a necessary component of a healthy diet.<\/p>\n
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The Paleo Diet has become more than simply a diet, but a total lifestyle choice among a growing number of consumers.\u00a0 It was the most-searched for diet of 2013, according to the Google Trends Zeitgeist List.<\/p>\n
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Experts including representatives from a leading trade publication, the Natural Products Association, a natural foods broker and natural foods advocate shared their take on the trends in a jam packed session that had attendees sitting on the floor and listening in from the hallway.\u00a0 Here is summary of their take on the hot trends in natural food and beverage:<\/p>\n
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Every trade show has a new product showcase, and entrants at this show included many line extensions of popular favorites.\u00a0 In the hotly competitive beverage category, My Cause Spring Water brought customization to a new level.\u00a0 When customers purchase the water they can go on the website and designate a cause that is uniquely meaningful to them.<\/p>\n
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Innovative up-cycling was seen at Bambeco with hand-blown recycled glassware and service ware with an artistic flair.<\/p>\n
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Expo East tweeters could not stop chirping about chocolate and wellness. Attendees were raving about chocolate ranging from gluten-free brownie crisps and whoopee pies to chocolate that\u2019s brewed just like coffee. Health benefits of chocolate were in the spotlight and the options were plentiful. Labels stating non-GMO, paleo\/primal, vegan, and free from gluten, dairy, and soy could be found everywhere.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s no surprise that talk of wellness was buzzing at the Natural Products Expo. Tweeters were urging supermarkets to take the high road on wellness, suggesting that food needs to be brought back to the center of medicine, highlighting the link between a good diet and good health.<\/p>\n
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Social media chatter suggested many ways for supermarkets to better their wellness strategies, such as making healthy options more affordable, having knowledgeable staff present to answer consumers\u2019 questions, and reacting fast to quickly changing trends.<\/p>\n
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If you would like to follow our observations in real time, please follow us at http:\/\/twitter.com\/YPulseLLC<\/a>.\u00a0 The next conference we will cover is National Association of Convenience Stores in Las Vegas, October 7-10.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Over 24,000 natural food enthusiasts attended this festival of conscious capitalism.\u00a0 There is no mistaking that this is not a \u201cbig food\u201d show.\u00a0 Even the largest exhibitors are featuring collections of brands and products all designed for a unique consumer target. Everyone has a story about food, family and the passion that ignited their business.Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culinaryvisions.org\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culinaryvisions.org\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culinaryvisions.org\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culinaryvisions.org\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culinaryvisions.org\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/culinaryvisions.org\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/culinaryvisions.org\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culinaryvisions.org\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culinaryvisions.org\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culinaryvisions.org\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Implications for Food Marketers<\/h3>\n
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