Natural Products Expo West: Friday, March 12, 2010

Today I went to Natural Products Expo West for the first time and it was amazing, and overwhelming. I've been to a lot of events and this is definitely the biggest - I have never seen so many company booths in one place!

I am working on a video I shot for Waylon Lewis of Elephant Journal, so be sure to stay tuned for that (next week). In the meantime, here are some notes of the things I saw today (I'm going back tomorrow for more!)

• Tofurky had the most memorable product - frozen vegan pizza with Daiya! It was so good - reminded me of the non-vegan kind I got as a kid: salty, crispy, thin crust.
• I saw some beautiful glass bottles by Takeya - a great product to buy, especially if you read my post on plastic bottles!
• Waylon spoke with Silk/Horizon milk about the recent controversy over their organic line - they had some great answers that you can find in the video. I also tried their new almond milk - delicious!
• St. Amour has some new vegan cakes that might be sold in Whole Foods - they were quite good. Check out my post on their baby biscuits. I took home some of their Rasperberry Chocolate Chip Rocks & Rolls - they are very tasty, great flavor!
• Amy's also has a new vegan pizza, but it's just their roasted vegetable on rice crust. They were out of their new Rice Macaroni today, but hopefully I can try it tomorrow!
• Finally met Abigail Young from VegNews in person, who featured me in an article she wrote for the current issue - check it out!

Though the Expo has taken some measures to be eco-friendly, overall the event is pretty wasteful. Even though a lot of companies use recycled, recyclable, or biodegradable packaging, it's still a lot; there are so many samples in small containers and cups being passed out. I tried to avoid trying products unless they were package-free, but it was hard. If you go, be sure to bring your own water bottle to try all the liquid samples, and don't take a napkin unless you need it.

Organic was the big word there - it was practically on every sign! Sounds like a good thing, but I'm always skeptical until I know about each ingredient and how/if they're certified. I was excited to learn about Quality Assurance International Organic Certification, which you will see in the Elephant Journal video.

Here's a little teaser of the video soon to come...