![]() ![]() Givaudan before and during the outbreak of COVID 19 identifying what consumers are looking for and guiding companies on developing new beverage formulations to meet those needs. Exhibitor seminars from companies like Givaudan (on "Co-creating Functional Beverages for a changing consumer," which revealed some proprietary research conducted by.Eight in-depth product category analysis sessions (on categories including, but not limited to frozen foods, pantry staples, beverages).Keynote speakers on topics ranging from The State of Natural & Organic (an excellent overview of the performance of natural and organic sales during 2020 - still hot as ever) as well as on justice, diversity, equity and inclusion.NPEW featured a wide array of programing (with the power point presentations often being available to download as PDFs) including: Tia Lupita, a new brand of healthy and authentic Mexican-inspired foods, won the Virtual Pitch Slam. The winner was Tia Lupita Foods, a better-for-you, healthy and authentic Mexican-inspired food brand that uses clean, simple ingredients in all of its products. There were 11 finalists for the Virtual Pitch Slam. Likewise, from the data presented by New Hope Network (the show's sponsor), SPINS and others, while sales of natural and organic were up year over year, it was difficult to determine how much of that was due to innovation or just repeat purchases.īut given the range of companies presenting during the Virtual Pitch Slam competition, innovation is not over in the natural and organic category like a lot of things that happened in the world in 2020, it may have just slowed down. In addition, the online platform sometimes made it difficult to determine if the new products being introduced were true innovations or line extensions. Many companies that have exhibited at real trade show were missing from the virtual platform. There were a lot fewer vendors then there are at the live show. Having attended numerous Natural Product Expos (both West & East) over the years, I found it difficult to determine on the virtual platform how much really new product development and innovation is going on. Leslie Herzog, a former Unilever product developer now with The Understanding & Insight Group, reports on this year's virtual show.Įntrepreneurship seemed alive and well despite the pandemic and Natural Products Expo West (NPEW) being conducted on a virtual platform in late May. Usually scheduled for mid-March in Anaheim, Calif., it was just a hair too early for this year's reopenings and trade shows. It's also one of the country's biggest trade shows (86,000 attended in 2019) and arguably the most interesting in the food & beverage industry, since it's still dominated by smaller and entrepreneurial companies with groundbreaking products. ![]() In March of 2020, Natural Products Expo West was one of the first trade shows canceled due to the emerging pandemic. ![]()
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