More News From Expo West

One trend in food today is going back to nature.  A paleo diet means eating like we used to eat:  nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables and grains.  Many of the food items at the natural food show this year were freeze dried fruits and vegetables and dried fruits and vegetables.  These fruits and veggies are added to almost anything from cookies to crackers to cereals.  Paleo Passion Pops caught my eye.  They are frozen juice bars like pineapple-ginger, and orange-coconut.  Each pop includes a "superfood," like chia or kale.  Additionally, there is no added sugar in Paleo Pops.  Snapz is another company using freeze dried fruits.  They make dried fruit in a snack pack.

Tumeric, a Middle Eastern spice, is popular today.  Temple Tumeric makes beverages flavored with turmeric.  It doesn't sound very good, but the flavor is very mild and hardly noticeable.  Siracha flavoring is another new flavor found in jerkies.  Krave, Country Archer and Golden Island all use siracha to spice up jerkies.

Here are a few more products I tasted and liked.  Daiya makes a gouda cheese that is plant based.  It's delicious, and even melts.  There is also a company that makes cheese from almond milk.  (sorry I don't have the name).   Mary's Gone Crackers has several new products.  Graham crackers, Italian herb, and ancient spice crackers are all delicious.  Kind, makes of protein bars, makes a spicy savory protein bar, a hickory smoked bar, and a honey mustard bar.  They were are good.  Vans made a bar that I really loved.  It was a cranberry almond bar, but they make several other great flavors.  I noticed that protein bars are more popular than ever.  I don't know how they'll all survive.

Last but not least, ice cream.  Aldens ice cream is fantastic.  I loved the caramel salt flavor.  Aldens also makes another brand called Julies, which makes delicious ice cream sandwiches.  Ciao Bell sorbets and gelato are not new, but they are delicious.  They have added ice cream sandwiches to their product line.  There is so much food at the natural food show that it's impossible to sample everything, but these are some of the products I enjoyed.  Protein bars, butter and cheeses from plants, spices like turmeric and flavorings like siracha, cereals and crackers from quinoa, spelt, and other grains, and freeze dried fruits and vegetables were the most noticeable trends.  I wonder what next year will bring.