How Expo West Reminds Us Why We Love Food

What Is Expo West (and Why We Went)

If you’ve ever been curious about where the future of food quietly takes shape, Expo West is the answer to all your questions! Officially known as Natural Products Expo West, this annual event held in Anaheim, California is the largest natural foods and beverages trade show in North America, bringing together brands, inventors, and retailers from all across the continent!

For a small Canadian food company like Crafty Ramen, Expo West is practically our superbowl, giving us the chance to connect with like-minded people who care deeply about what they make, and learn how food is evolving on a global scale. Taking a step outside our restaurant walls, it was equal parts eye-opening and refreshing. Most of all, it reminded us of our bigger goal: to share more comfort with more people across the world!

The Highlights We’re Still Thinking About

Trends We Noticed at Expo West
Some trends that stood out to us were the use of protein and fibre. It’s protein on protein on protein, it seems like there’s never enough protein!! And fibre is next on the trendline! We also noticed that a lot of booths were promoting the use of beef tallow. Maybe that’s something we need to consider for our next restaurant bowls? 👀
We knew we had to get in on the fun, so we tried it out ourselves! (insert photo?)

Our Favourite Booth
We saw countless brands that shared the same ambition as Crafty Ramen but a few that stood out more than others were Mila and ______! [Why it stood out]. Mila’s frozen dumplings were to

• Mila (and a possible collab in the future?)

Samples We Tried
There were an unbelievable amount of samples to try, and you know we stuffed our faces with everything we could. There were samples all the way from [food] to [food,] and we were even shocked to see [not usual flavour of food or product]. It was exciting and comforting to see so many other businesses taking risks and trying something new!

What We Learned
This year’s event was unlike any other and really enlightened us towards [insight]. It was new to us to learn that [something new we learned]. We actually had an “aha” moment, and we know that we’ll be taking this with us going forward!

Standout Moments
Okay, maybe this one wasn’t as insightful as the rest but we had to mention when [quick story, feeling or highlight, either fun or interesting, or otherwise]! It was unlike anything we’d ever seen before.

Back Home, Still Buzzing

Expo West left us inspired with our brains buzzing and notebooks full. We came home with a grounded reminder that behind every great product is a story, a team, and a lot of care. We’re excited to take what we learned, tasted, and experienced and let it quietly shape what comes next because comfort, after all, is meant to be shared.