10 new healthy snacks we loved at Expo West 2024 (2024)

Natural Products Expo West is like the Super Bowl of snacks. Of course, we were on the ground to check it out.

The industry-only show over five days at the Anaheim Convention Center is not open to the public. This year's extravaganza included more than 67,000 registered attendees and 3,300 exhibiting companies, including many international brands looking to break into the U.S. market.

At Expo West 2024, cookie dough and dumplings were trending, along with mushroom chips and jerky, freeze-dried foods, and a plethora of gummies with various adaptogens and purported health benefits.

Bubble tea, kombucha, and collagen drinks were hot bevies, along with a slew of nonalcoholic wines and spirits.

In our expert opinion, these are the top 10 snacks we are most excited to see hit grocery store shelves.

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Rbel Bee Honey Gummies

These grown-up gummies are sweetened with honey rather than refined sugar, and they were my favorite out of the dozens of gummies we tasted at the show this year.

The ingredient list is surprisingly healthy: Wild Child Cherry includes alfalfa honey, organic blue oyster mushroom, and tart cherry extract, while Poma Punch mixes vanilla saffron honey with pomegranate extract and beet powder.

Yes, honey counts as added sugar and these gummies are still candy. However, honey's glycemic index is lower than sugar and has anti-inflammatory benefits.

Available at Erewhon Market, Fresh Thyme Market, Hy-Vee, and on the Rbel Bee website.

Doughpamine gourmet cookie dough

After working in the kitchens of Wolfgang Puck, Masaharu Morimoto, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, fine dining pastry chef Jessica Entzel Nolan launched her frozen cookie dough company in October 2023.

Each resealable package includes six buttery cookie dough rounds with flavors like salty Valrhona chocolate chunk, blueberry corn, and bestselling miso peanut butter—which she first created for Morimoto. Of the dozen cookie doughs we tried at Expo West, these came out on top.

Available at specialty grocers throughout California and on the Doughpamine website.

Alec's Ice Cream

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This regenerative-farmed and organic ice cream brand produces ice cream that's designed to be healthy for your tummy and the planet, made with gut-friendly A2 dairy.

Alec's Ice Cream debuted nine new flavors at Expo West this year, including Meyer Lemon Cookie, Strawberry Oat Crumble, Maple Cardamom Candied Pecan, Palm Springs Banana Chocolate Date Shake, and Groundwork Coffee 'n' Toffee.

The cold brew Groundwork coffee flavor was a favorite for its robust coffee flavor. We also liked the salty-sweet combo for maple cardamom candied pecan. All the flavors had great creamy texture and mix-ins were generous.

Available at Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Sprouts, and on the Alec's Ice Cream site.

Bear's Fruit kombucha and probiotic beverages

As consumers learn more about how important gut health is to our overall health, probiotics are becoming increasingly popular. And at Expo West, this was our favorite functional beverage with a probiotic boost.

Brooklyn-based Bear's Fruit makes kombucha and a first-of-its-kind probiotic sparkling water, all flavored with fresh fruit and herbs and no added sugar.

The Strawberry Basil and Mango Habanero sparkling waters are delightfully refreshing, while Ginger Lemon Rosemary was our favorite of the kombuchas.

All of these drinks would make excellent mixers in co*cktails or mocktails too. Available at Sprouts, Earth Fare, Northeast Whole Foods and on the Bear's Fruit website.

Date Better snacks

Dates seemed to be the trendy alternative sweetener this year, used in many sweet snacks. But these organic dark chocolate-covered Medjool dates with fanciful nut butter fillings were the tastiest.

Founder Michelle Valdez Wilton makes all her nut butter from scratch and handpicks the finest Medjool dates for the best results.

Peanut Butter Crunch is the bestselling crowd pleaser, while Hazelnut Praline, Cashew Lime Crisp, and Almond Java Crunch get a little more adventurous. Each flavor has a short list of whole food ingredients that taste super indulgent while being packed with healthy fats and fiber. Available at specialty grocers in Southern California and on the Date Better site.

Yolélé chips and pilaf pouches

There were many African flavors at Expo West this year, and Yolélé stood out from the crowd with its super lightweight and crispy gluten-free chips made from fonio, an ancient West African grain.

Fonio is a rare climate-resistant grain that can be grown in sub-Saharan Africa, and the team sources directly from small farmer groups in Mali.

Flavors like Tangy Baobab and Yassa Chili are bold enough to eat on their own with an addictive crunch, but also sturdy enough for dipping. Yolélé also makes fonio pilaf pouches that can be microwaved in just five minutes, with a similar texture to a fluffy miniature couscous. Available at Whole Foods, Thrive Market, Meijer, Giant, Central Market, and on the Yolélé website.

Magic Mind wellness shots

We're generally skeptical of pricey wellness shots with too-good-to-be-true claims and artificial or unappealing flavors that need a chaser afterward. But we were pleasantly surprised by both the subtly sweet matcha flavor of Magic Mind and the almost immediate calm focus it gave us amid an incredibly hectic and overwhelming day.

We tried a shot the next morning too, after a mediocre night's sleep, and preferred the mental boost compared to the caffeine rush from coffee. Available at Erewhon, Central Market, Sprouts, fancy cafes and on the Magic Mind website.

MyForest Foods meat alternatives

There were a lot of mushroom products at Expo West, but the meatless mycelium MyBacon from New York-based MyForest Foods stood out. It just won the Nexty Awards for best new vegan product.

The oyster mushroom mycelium fiber can be grown in 12 days, making it a nutritious and sustainable plant-based protein. MyBacon has just five ingredients, and it genuinely looks and tastes like bacon. It sizzled on the flat-top grill and the organic coconut oil gives it a crispy, melt-in-your-mouth fatty mouthfeel, while the mushroom has a surprisingly meaty chew.

Available in Whole Foods and specialty grocers in the Northeast.

Baris chocolate-covered raspberries

New company Baris, named for Bariloche, a region in Patagonia where raspberries grow wild, has hand-picked raspberries that are a fun, frozen alternative to chocolate-covered strawberries.

The delicate sweet-tart raspberries are covered in white and milk chocolate, white and dark chocolate, or 72% extra-dark chocolate (our favorite). They're a fun bite-sized treat, reminding us of Nestle Dibs but far healthier.

Available at Foxtrot and UberEats in Miami.

Mamame Tempeh Chips

Tempeh is traditionally made from soybeans, but these gluten-free and vegan chips are made with non-GMO black-eyed beans, which are slowly fermented for 50 hours and then cooked in coconut oil until they achieve a light, satisfying crunch.

The family-owned business is based in Indonesia, where the chips are manufactured. While the crispy chips are widely available in Asia already, Expo West marks their U.S. debut. Each serving contains five grams of protein and six grams of fiber, and we're hoping to see them in stores soon.

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.