VIN News – Secaucs, NJ – Once again, the annual Kosherfest food show, held at the Meadowlands Exhibition Center in Secaucus New Jersey, broke all records attracting a crowd of over 6000. The two day show, held October 26th and 27th featured 350 vendors from nineteen countries including Poland, Lithuania, Gibraltar, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador.
Menachem Lubinsky, founder and president of LUBICOM Marketing and consulting and co-producer of the annual kosher food trade show described this year’s 23rd annual Kosherfest in an interview with VIN News as “the largest and best attended ever.”
“All segments of the industry have adjusted to the ‘new kosher’ “, said Lubinsky. “Today’s kosher consumer is younger and wants healthier food and this year’s show featured an unprecedented number of gluten free, organic, natural and spelt products. Even the older, more traditional companies have adapted their products to meet the needs of today’s kosher consumer. At the first Kosherfest, there were eleven booths featuring kugel. Now? You can’t even find kugel.”
Well over 500 new products were featured at this year’s show and Lubinsky is confident that many of them will be on store shelves soon. As in previous years, new products competed for the title of “Best New Product” in various categories and this year’s “Best in Show” was awarded to No Worries Natural Foods Mountain Bread, a wrap that comes in eight varieties and according to Lubinsky “was absolutely delicious”. Other winners at this year’s show reflected the trend toward lighter, healthier products including Kedem’s Zeta Olive Oil with Garlic and Basil, Klein’s Natural Dried Guava, Les Petites Fermieres Reduced Fat Cheddar Sticks, Nature’s Select Food Group Organic Petite Select Sheperd’s Pie, Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods, Lightly Breaded Tilapia. The winner in the Best New Giftware and Novelty catergory was The Kosher Cook’s Challah Dough Cover, a special cover designed to cover rising challah dough emblazoned with the words “l’hafrish challah min ha’isa.”
Almost twenty five percent of the exhibitors at this year’s show were new to Kosher Fest and Lubinsky explained that it is not uncommon for vendors not to return to the show.
“Once they are picked up by a distributor,” said Lubinsky, “they have set out what they achieved to do. There is lots of good news for the kosher consumer and many of these products should be on store shelves soon.”
Among the products featured at Kosherfest were glatt kosher sausages, kosher l’Pesach breadsticks, French and Belgian chocolate, Beef jerky and smoked teriyaki chicken nuggets in addition to a whole host of wines and liqueurs, not only from all over the country, but from literally all over the world. Kosher food giant Manishewitz set up their booth to look like an Israeli Shuk while candle company Ner Mitzvah created havdala candles on the spot. Additionally, six new cookbooks debuted at Kosherfest, including Susie Fishbein’s seventh volume, Kosher By Design For Teens and 20-Somethings and award winning author Joan Nathan’s “Quiches, Kugels and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France”.
The downside of attending Kosherfest? “With so many delicious new products to sample, it’s not good for my diet,” said Lubinsky. “It’s not good for anyone’s diet.”
