Greetings Snackers,

Just got back from Baltimore's Natural Products Expo East where we showed with our favorite new distributor, Avenue Gourmet.  We met all sorts of groovy, smart manufacturers, and we managed (with the help of Avenue's delightful sales team) to move quite a lot of product.  Though we only sampled for a sixth of the show, we return with lots of new business and grand new opportunities opened.  But the show didn't treat all other so kindly.

Attendence at the show could be best described as "unintimidating".  About 9 out of 10 exhibitors asked said that they expected more attendees, and some used words considerably less accomodating than "unintimidating".  Not once while walking the show did I find it difficult to walk down an aisle.  Trade show traffic usually makes for frustrating moments where a huge glut of grousing show-goers forces you to sit at some random organic chocolatier's booth for 20 minutes at a time, gobbling up all their truffles in frustration.

While the attendence was low, there was no shortage of exhibitors, and next year's increased demand for booths has forced the show's organizers to move it from Baltimore to Boston where there's more space (and pricier hotel rooms).  Every scrap of booth space in the Convention Center was used up, and several exhbitors used to spreading out had to cram in to tiny spaces.  It felt like Manhattan in there.

In spite of all those products filling the Baltimore Convention Center's modest space, few earth-shakingly novel ideas were on display.  The inevitable "now Organic" stuff was there- Organic Frozen Pizza, Organic Ho-Hos, etc.  And plenty of exhibitors were offering up frightening infusions (pomegranite infused potato chips?  YUCK!!).  Some dog food and baby food innovations saved the day, but when it came to snacks?  Nada....

There were, as usual, some truly TERRIBLE ideas.  I don't mean to pick fights, and the people at this booth were really nice, but I want to present to you what happens when good people get bad ideas in the food industry: take cranberries, add some anti-oxidants, and ride a silly trend and you get:

Fruitaceuticals!

Okay, when I get sick and need drugs to feel better, I go to doctor and get a prescription for a pharmaceutical.  When I feel hungry, I eat Fruit.  When an evil scientist pours gamma radiation into an innocent apple, turning it into a rampaging, man-eating, monstrous behemoth of a freak of nature, I'm watching the terrible 1970s horror movie called "The Fruitraceutical from Beyond!"

The product's simple enough- infuse a cranberry with pomegranate juice and add some vitamins.  But the name is terrible, and the hubris behind it just sickes me- why is it that so many of these "natural" companies think that nature's doing such a piss-poor job that they insist on bettering it with needles and gamma radiation?

They taste like the very successful "Craisins", and I wish them luck with their srumptious little abominations, but jeez, guys, PLEASE come up with an appetizing names for your sick offenses of nature!

Happy Snacking,

Ian K, Peeled Snack Blogger guy