Prepared Foods' Executive Editor–Technical David Feder interviews ethnobotanist and regular contributor to Prepared Foods Kerry Hughes. She discusses the trending foods, beverages, and ingredients using botanicals that caught her attention at the 2024 Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California. Among specific better-for-you and botanical ingredients Hughes notes are: aloe, ashwagandha, cranberry, elderberry, ginseng, milk thistle, mushrooms, saw palmetto, and tomato lycopene. According to Hughes, ginseng was one of the top botanicals as far as growth since 2020.

One overall trend she noted was “condition specific” uses of botanicals, as confirmed in the American Herbal Products Association breakfast meeting at the expo. Another trend was a marked increase in adaptogens—that is, functional ingredients that focus on helping to mitigate stress, anxiety, fatigue and help enhance overall wellbeing. Included in this trend was the abundance of functional beverage noted at the show, especially those carrying mood and lifestyle types of claims. Also, no- and low-alcohol beverages were especially profuse.

Botanicals applied for their flavors and their nutraceutical values were in play, tart cherry juice being one prime example. The fruit is well-noted for its contribution to relaxation and sleep. Bitters, too, were presented at the expo but, more so, the use of bitter herbs in formulations. Such astringent botanicals have become more acceptable to Western palates as global flavors increasingly are inculcated into the region. Due to bitter herbs’ strong health association, product developers are more interested in including them in their formulations.

Finally, with the three-year pandemic lockdown over, inner beauty ingredients are trending again. There were a number of collagen-containing products and supplements, but notably products promoting vitamins and minerals that help affect the way you look, such as vitamins A C, and E—vitamins and minerals that not only have antioxidant capacity but, like vitamin C, to help build collagen.

World cuisine and ethnic flavors made a strong showing among the food products at the Natural Products Expo. Items such as Asian pot stickers, Indian food, and lots of vegetarian and plant -based options were featured. Such ethnic cuisines often are the intersections of medicine and cuisine—where cultures have been engaged in traditional and plant-based medicines for centuries, if not millennia. We’ll likely see many more such products in the near future.

Want more insights from Natural Products Expo West 2024? Watch or listen to David Feder's review of the ingredients, foods, and beverages that caught his eye.