Unboxed: 5 NEXTY ingredients that expand consumer comfort zones
These NEXTY Award finalists incorporate inspiring and lesser-known ingredients that just might become the next best thing.
![Unboxed: 5 NEXTY ingredients that expand consumer comfort zones Unboxed: 5 NEXTY ingredients that expand consumer comfort zones](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt09e5e63517a16184/bltafc06db067aebac6/64cbf83cdb0bcc7a8de33eaa/NewHopeNetwork_Horizontal_RGB.png?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Dedicated to finding new life for food industry leftovers, LOOP fuels its Water Kefir with plant hydrosols—an infused water byproduct of essential oil production—along with cold-pressed juice sourced from “ugly” produce.
Add a helping of this easy-to-prepare ground lupin bean to any dish for a tasty and nutrient-dense side or main course. This legume, a nitrogen-capturing crop grown in Australia has zero cholesterol, is low in fat and has 16 grams of protein and 15 grams of dietary fiber per serving.
Wize makes this ready-to-drink iced tea from coffee leaves, a typically discarded byproduct of coffee bean harvesting. Notably, the company operates a vertically integrated model that supports coffee farmers in Nicaragua with year-round employment, among other initiatives. With 1 gram of natural cane sugar and 35 milligrams caffeine, it's a great-tasting tea with a great mission.
Like Ayo Foods' other frozen meals (Cassava Leaf Soup and Jollof Rice) this ready-to-heat dish was inspired by West African flavors and carefully crafted using authentic ingredients and spices. It's a savory soup made with ground seeds from egusi melons—a wild member of the gourd family—which are high in protein and healthy fats.
Minna uses popular topical ingredient calendula in this, the brand’s newest sparkling tea variety. Another ingredient, cacao nibs extract, is also less-common in the beverage space. Blended together with hibiscus and cherry, it helps put the nuanced flavor in this unsweetened, lightly sparkling green tea.
Minna uses popular topical ingredient calendula in this, the brand’s newest sparkling tea variety. Another ingredient, cacao nibs extract, is also less-common in the beverage space. Blended together with hibiscus and cherry, it helps put the nuanced flavor in this unsweetened, lightly sparkling green tea.
There are so many reasons to love the NEXTY Awards, not least of which are the inspiring missions, high levels of integrity and eye-opening innovations that so many of the nominating brands bring to the table. As New Hope Network editors tracking the latest and greatest trends in the natural products industry, the NEXTY Awards often give us a firsthand glimpse into new concepts, or highlight the trends that we’ve seen emerging over the previous months or more.
Products that rely on new (at least to many of us) and innovative ingredients are also fascinating to experience during the very intense NEXTY judging process, which can be as fun and interesting as it is, ahem, taxing on the waistline.
With just a couple of weeks to go before the winners of the 2020 Natural Products Expo Spark Change NEXTY Awards are announced on Oct. 7 during the Spark Change Modern Health Community Event, this gallery provides a look of some of the unusual, innovative and interesting ingredients seen, tasted and marveled at during these most-recent NEXTY Awards nominations.
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