A week ago, the annual Natural Products Expo West was held at the Anaheim Convention Center. Expo West is an excellent convention to learn what the latest trends in natural CPG are, what new brands have emerged, what new products are being introduced by existing brands, and to touch base with all of my favorite exhibitors. As always, there was plenty of tasty food to sample and plenty new of new offerings to report on. In alphabetical order, I’ve listed below my most 10 most innovative discoveries at Expo West 2024:
Bionaturae
As many of you know, I’m a big advocate for traditional sourdough and all of its health benefits. In the past several years, I’ve seen the options for sourdough bread increase exponentially. As sourdough starter can be used in any wheat products, we’re beginning to see sourdough expand from bread to countless other products on the market. Enter Bionaturae and their Nexty Award winning organic sourdough pasta. Bionaturae and its sister brand Jovial have been trendsetters in natural food with everything from einkorn to tomato products in glass jars. Sourdough pasta now joins the ranks among the wide variety of traditional food products they offer.
Biora 
When the first two brands on my list involve new uses of popular ferments, it’s the sign of a great Expo West. The majority of people are now familiar with kombucha and its healing properties. For most though, they simply think of kombucha as a beverage and aren’t aware it can be used as an ingredient in foods. Biora is here to change that with their vinegars and salad dressings using a kombucha base. Kombucha and healthier salad dressings are both subcategories I’ve praised and written articles on. It’s wonderful to see the two combined.
Dignity
In terms of being an appropriate omnivore, the word appropriate isn’t only about being environmental or healthy. It’s also important to source products where the workers are treated well. This is especially important when choosing imported foods, such as coconut oil. Along with providing coconut oil from regenerative organic farms, Dignity fights to stop the modern slavery coconut farmers are faced with where they’re often exploited or trafficked. Dignity gives 114 jobs, education, and clean water for 30 villages and Direct Trade to 150+ farmer families. These families are also now able to send their kids to school for the fist time.
Fermented Food Holdings
The new offerings of ferments were all over this year’s Expo West. Fermented Food Holdings has an excellent selection of various fermented food products among its many brands and two new types of ferments at two of them. Bubbies introduced the first fermented pickle chips. Hawthorne Foods now has fermented hot sauces. Both products have typically contained vinegar, which lacks the good bacteria found in fermentation. I use a lot of each of them in my cooking, so I was delighted to see them in fermented form.
Force of Nature
On the omnivore side of the natural food spectrum, one of the trends I was most excited to discover is more products using organ meats. Organ meats are the most nutrient dense meats, much more so than muscle meats. But many are afraid to eat them. So what better way to get folks to incorporate heart and liver in their diet than mixed with ground beef than with Force of Nature‘s new line of meatballs, a food everybody loves. And as with all Force of Nature products, the organ meatballs are 100% grass fed and regeneratively sourced.
Grass Grazed
Back in 2020, I wrote an article about real food trends I’d like to see more of and included pasture raised pork. Walking the Expo West floor, I learned the Durham, NC farm Grass Grazed sees the need for this as well. Locally, Grass Grazed sells regeneratively farmed and 100% grass fed beef, pasture raised pork, chicken, and turkey. They’re now entering the snack line with their pasture grazed pork sticks.
Just Date
Just Date has been selling its date syrup and date sugar for a little while now as natural sweetener alternatives to regular sugar. At the 2024 Expo West, they debuted their milk and dark chocolate chips as their first chocolate product sweetened with dates. The ingredients include fair trade cacao and cacao butter and dates which are not only organic, but also Upcycled. All of this making for some of the most sustainable chocolate chips you can add to your cookies, muffins, and other baked goods.
King Arthur
Since attending Expo West post pandemic, I’ve seen more and more regenerative certified products every year and in more and more unique categories. We can now include baking flour as having regenerative options with King Arthur‘s Regeneratively-Grown Climate Blend Flour. Going regenerative adds to King Arthur’s commitment to clean, unadulterated ingredients. Its flours are organic, unenriched, and free of additives and synthetic vitamins. To sample their new regenerative whole wheat flour, King Arthur handed out some mouth watering chocolate chip cookies.
Roots Farm Fresh
French fries have always been one of my favorite foods. It’s such a savory treat having some deep fried starchy potatoes. Since becoming more concerned about my food, I don’t consume them as much anymore. Discovering Roots Farm Fresh at Expo West, I’ve found fries I can make at home. Roots will have the first French fries on the market not cooked in seed oil. Roots fries instead use avocado and olive oil. Along with fries cooked in rancid oils, another issue is conventional potatoes are one of the most unsustainable crops. They’re both grown in large and monocultures and rank at the top of crops sprayed with pesticides. Roots fries are not only cooked in healthy oils, but also very sustainable being both organically sourced and Upcycled.
Saltverk
As a lover of ferments, it’s fitting that I also love salty foods. While iodized salt is nutrient deficient, real sea salt is important to include in our diets. Saltverk not only contains sea salt from some of the cleanest water in Iceland, but also processes its salt using geothermal energy. Saltverk has a regular flaky sea salt as well a number of flavored salts.