A wonderland of products designed to be healthier, organic or suitable for any dietary need met a large audience at Natural Products Expo West, held last month in Anaheim. Every year the convention presents the latest innovations designed to please those demanding healthy alternatives to snack or ready made foods.
More than 63,000 industry members, primarily retailers, and 2,428 exhibiting companies broke records for the 33rd annual event. “Consumers are looking to incorporate good tasting foods that are healthy instead of dieting,” says Numi Tea CEO Ahmed Rahim. Cookies, bars, chocolate, bread, hot food, snacks of every description were presented in sample sizes to try.
Gluten free, allergen free, non-dairy products, and vegan offerings were also notable trends. Tours, seminars, dinners, receptions and music rounded out the event.
Sun Lite Whipped Roasted Sunflower Kernal Spread Creamy
This sunflower butteris a delicious peanut butter substitute. It is great out of the jar to eat with a spoon (if you also eat peanut butter with a spoon right out of the jar) and will work as a nice substitute if you or a loved one has a peanut allergy. It’s also gluten and dairy free and processed in a facility free of those allergens.
Fully Functional Cookies
The idea behind these tasty bites is to add purpose to cookies.The Awaken Baked cookie is pretty self explanatory espresso cookies with a mix of coffee and chocolate to keep you energized. All of the Fully Functional Cookies have nutritional or other benefits. The Snap Back has detoxifiers like cayenne pepper and black strap molasses. Packed with ginger flavor, you guessed it: a ginger snap cookie. Tough Cookie is meant to be enjoyed post workout with peanut butter and extra protein. The Cherry Bomb is gluten free and the Great Full is made with sweet potato, cranberry and oatmeal to provide antioxidants.
Order online the best way to go is the sample five pack for $15 to see which you like best. If you have a purpose for your cookie consumption, other than or if craving yuminess, go straight there.
Numi Savory Tea
Kudos to the creative minds at Numi Tea, CEO Ahmed Rahim for one, for coming up with such an original concept: tea plus vegetables. The appeal to the health conscious is obvious, yet whether the demand reaches a broader audience of tea drinkers remains to be seen. Launched just three months ago, the tea combines organic vegetables, herbs, decaf tea and spices for a taste that blurs the line between tea and soup. Depending on the flavor and your palate, you may notice tea with barely a hint of the vegetable or spice, such as tomato mint. Others have noticeable amounts of both, such as the Carrot Curry in which a sweet note of carrot underlines a hint of heat from the curry. Other flavors include Broccoli Cilantro, Fennel Spice, Spinach Chive and Beet Cabbage.
“Numi has a history and culture of being innovative,” says Rahim, “We were the first to the U.S. market with Rooibos, Honeybush, and Flowering Tea. So we wanted to disrupt the tea category. Savory flavored foods are very popular, and veggies are very much on trend. The Savory Tea blends are based on recipes enjoyed from around the world.”
