43 Expo East NEXTY Award nominees represent the future of natural products
October 15, 2015
![43 Expo East NEXTY Award nominees represent the future of natural products 43 Expo East NEXTY Award nominees represent the future of natural products](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt09e5e63517a16184/blt025e47d4bba8b3ad/64f1ce6b8aa8253272295807/eenexty-promo.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
ASI offers something both new and old with its Yaupon tea. Yaupon is the only native source of caffeine in North America, and Native Americans used this beverage for many years until its decline in the 19th century. After learning about the ancient beverage while on a walking tour, company owner Lou Thomann began researching more of its story. Realizing the benefits of this local tea, he sought to bring it to market. A majority of the tea is still wild harvested, and all ingredients are domestically sourced. While ASI offers several flavors, only one is pre-sweetened. All other options come unsweetened and allow one to focus on the clean, sweetgrass flavor.
If you need an example of sustainable seafood that can also be scalable, look no further than Australis Barramundi. A vertically integrated producer of barramundi, also called Asian seabass, this brand owns environmentally friendly fish farming operations in the U.S. and in Central Vietnam that are innovating in sustainable aquaculture. For example, in Vietnam, Australis uses both land-based nursery tanks for young fish and open ocean pens for mature fish located in strong currents six miles offshore. Each pen is low-density to prevent the spread of disease (eliminating the need for antibiotics). Fish are given sustainable feed, and they are meticulously monitored. The result is a consistent supply of frozen fish that doesn't lead to overfishing.
Many natural food products encourage the intake of more fruits, vegetables and superfoods, but it's rare to find a solution that features fresh whole foods in a chewable state. Co-founders Esther and Leah have a passion for portable nourishment but felt that cold-pressed juices (their go-to choice at the time) didn’t supply enough filling fiber and often contained added sugar. Enter the avocado, which inspired everything from the super blend to the packaging of Avoke, new spoonable smoothie bowls that are made with half of an avocado and other raw ingredients, such as beets, berries, kale, 100 percent fruit juices, toasted quinoa and chia seeds. Using high pressure processing (HPP) allows the ingredients to be never heated and keeps the nutrients of the produce intact. The lids contain a pop-out spoon for super convenient nutrition on the go.
While fermentation is hardly a new concept, we are seeing lots of new products being brought to market in this category. BAO Cultured is approaching this area with some familiar favorites like kombucha and fermented vegetables, but it's also introducing some innovative offerings like “Liquid Pickles," which are shot-sized doses of fermented vegetable juice. Originally created as a way to make use of the leftover liquid produced when fermenting vegetables, Liquid Pickles amp up the flavor and benefits by including things like turmeric, green tea, spirulina, nigella seed and chlorella, creating a convenient way to aid digestion.
You want to believe the olive oil you drizzle over your salad is truly delivering beneficial monounsaturated fats and helping you live a more healthful Mediterranean lifestyle. But unfortunately, many bottles of EVOO on store shelves contain far less olive oil than you’d imagine—commonly, a small amount of olive oil is mixed with cheaper, less healthful oils and added colorants. The creators of Bellucci Extra-Virgin Olive Oil is bringing more transparency to a category rippled with fraud. The label on every bottle lists the harvest date, as well as the types of olives picked, pressed and bottled by a cooperative of Italian growers. What’s more, purchasers can trace their bottle to its harvest region in rural Italy by typing the lot number into the Bellucci Traceability App or the company’s website.
There are a lot of kombucha brands on store shelves, but this Asheville-based company stands out for its enlightened take on food sovereignty and responsible scaling. The folks behind Buchi deeply believe in a hyper-local food system. Not only is their kombucha production facility located on a working organic farm, but also the brand is dedicated to keeping food—especially living foods like kombucha—as local as possible. While most food companies have the goal of expanding distribution across the United States, Buchi understands that just because a food company can distribute nationally, that doesn't necessarily mean it should. The kombucha company practices what it preaches by offering an Intentional Series of kombucha—all blends that speak to a core belief like decentralized agriculture, GMO-free seeds and community-based education—and donate 5 cents from every bottle sold to corresponding nonprofits.
Premade, gluten-free frozen pizza crust. Is that too much to ask? It was until Cappello’s create a super-clean, grain-free, paleo, non-GMO, kosher pizza crust you can decorate with favorite toppings—or opt for one of three pre-topped flavors: cheese, pepperoni and sheep’s milk. What makes this crust unique from other gluten-free pizza doughs and mixes on the market is a nut-free base made from cage-free eggs, arrowroot flour and organic coconut milk—plus they’re handcrafted, preshaped and frozen for convenience. Cappello’s specializes in high-end products for food lovers with dietary restrictions. Some of its other innovations include fresh, gluten-free, grain-free fettuccine, gnocchi, lasagna sheets and cookie dough.
With 70 percent of yogurt eaten at breakfast and most often loaded up with sugar and sugar sweetened fruit, the founders of The Chaat Co. saw an opportunity to eat yogurt as it's eaten in India--all day. The Chaat Co. offers savory snack yogurt with flavors like cucumber mint, mango chili and tamarind date all topped off with a crunch of puffed lentils. It combines the inspiration of Indian flavors with a healthy, non-GMO and gluten free snack with no added sugar. Here’s to reinventing a crowded category in a fresh, exciting way.
This excellent company earns a nomination for its unparalleled food safety protocols—especially when it comes to common allergens. How does Freedom Foods maintain such high standards in its tasty cereals? Let us count the ways. All products are processed in a special facility that is totally free from wheat, barley, triticale, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, dairy and sesame seeds. Freedom Foods mills all of its own flour and tests every batch in-house for allergen contamination. It also gets external testing on raw and finished products to validate that testing procedures are correct. The company trains and re-trains staff members to uphold allergen-free processes. In addition to providing a clean-label product (that also tastes pretty darn good!), Freedom Foods exemplifies the future of allergen-friendly foods that is deeply entrenched in consumer trust.
Jackfruit is a large, nubbly fruit that grows abundantly in India. When harvested before it becomes sweet, and then cooked, jackfruit becomes a high-fiber, low-calorie, vegan and non-GMO replacement for meat. Founder Annie Ryu started Global Village Fruit in order to support indigenous jackfruit growers and processors across the South Indian Countryside.
Founded by recent graduates from the University of Maryland, Javazen is a unique blend of antioxidant-rich storehouses: organic ground coffee, yerba mate and acai berry powder comprise the high-caffeine Boost blend. Add two tablespoons to your French press or automatic coffee maker and sip just like you would your morning Joe. For quieter moments, choose Relax, a blend that contains decaffeinated organic coffee, rooibos tea, honeybush, goji berry powder, lucuma and ground vanilla. Javazen earns a NEXTY nomination for pioneering a new category. It’s not quite tea. It's not quite coffee. It's a whole-body wellness beverage flavored with organic superfoods instead of natural flavoring.
Mamma Chia was a pioneer in the rediscovery of chia as a powerful superfood. Its recently introduced Chia and Greens line is a fresh take on the green drink movement and offers organic greens, omega 3s, fiber, protein and powerful antioxidants to pump up your green drink even further. Mamma Chia is a conscious company--a certified B-Corp, a member of 1% for the Planet and a founding member of Slow Money.
More than 9 billion single-serve coffee capsules go into landfills in North America each year. Marley Coffee is taking one small step toward reducing that number by packaging its sustainably and ethically produced coffee in RealCups. They’re recyclable single-serve coffee pods that are designed to make it easy to compost the grounds, too. Plus, Marley donates one cent from each RealCup sold to Waterwise Coffee, which helps clean rivers in Ethiopia that are polluted by coffee processing.
If ancient Incan civilizations can credit frozen potatoes for their longevity through cold, long winters and natural disasters, then why shouldn’t we fuel our future with similar preservation? That’s the inspiration behind Chia Crunch, a new chia-packed snack from Natierra made from freeze-dried fruits and vegetables. Ancient “chuno” was discovered when Incan farmers high in the Andes would let their potato crop freeze and then step over the fields of potatoes to squeeze moisture from the spuds, thus creating the original freeze-dried food that retained its nutritional value and wouldn’t spoil. Incan culture also inspired the shape of the bright, organic and fair-trade-sourced snacks—they resemble stacking stones the ancient people used to create “cairns” (or stone towers), used to mark trails along the mountains and help guide travelers on their (in this case, healthy) journey.
What’s your next move when you have a fairly clean label product that’s selling well? If you’re The New Primal, you focus on making that product even better and more inclusive. After hearing that many with soy allergies were wishing for a jerky they could eat, The New Primal team decided to devote time and resources to removing tamari and liquid smoke from their recipes. After a year of experimenting, they were able to reformulate using apple cider vinegar and coconut aminos instead, allowing the already clean jerky sweetened with honey and fruit juices to become a Top 8 allergen-free product.
It’s not the products—pantry staples like white basmati rice, pink rock salt and organic raw cane sugar—but the practices behind them that make this young company NEXTY-worthy. At the core of The Real Co.’s mission is the belief that we have the right to know where and who our food comes from; that’s why it sources its products from single farms which are depicted and named on the front of all of its packages. In its quest to become the first single origin food company, The Real Co. is creating partnerships with growers around the world who don’t already have an established mainstream route to distribute their goods.
Reishi mushrooms, maca root, ashwaganda. These superherbs have been supporting health and wellness for millennia. REBBL creates clean, healthy, superherb-enriched tonics and elixirs for a nutritious, organic beverage experience. Even better, the REBBL team carefully selects these herbs to support a fair trade, clean supply chain that works to support the world’s neediest communities. Their partnership with Not For Sale (they donate 2.5 percent of revenues) is an innovative, sustainable, market-based solution to prevent exploitation in the Peruvian Amazon. Good for you, good for the world.
The forthcoming non-dairy veggie and fruit tubes from Ruby Rocket’s are a plant-based play on the sugary yogurt tubes found in kids’ lunchboxes. With simple ingredients like coconut milk, pea protein, chia seeds and real fruits and veggies, they pack 2 g of protein with no added sugar, providing an appealing alternative for busy parents (and vegans!). Even better? They’re shelf stable, so there’s no need to worry about refrigeration. In three cosmic flavors: Stellar Strawberry, Telescopic Tropic and Beam Me Up Berry.
This new beverage brand received a NEXTY nomination thanks to its commitment to providing a fresh-tasting drink that contains zero sugar. As consumers grow more attune to the dangers of sugary beverages, many brands are swapping out refined sugar with better-for-you alternatives like coconut sugar, maple syrup or fruit juices. These are worthy endeavors, but sut Sound’s entire line is completely sugar-free—yup, that’s zero sugar and zero calories. But that doesn’t mean it’s also free from flavor. Sound spikes its carbonated drinks with beautiful, organic tea blends that contain ingredients like yerba mate, hibiscus and lemon extract, chamomile, elderflower, lavender and vanilla. If Sound is the next iteration of soda, it will be a healthier world, indeed.
Can ketchup be rightly classified as a vegetable? This question has plagued nutritionists and healthy school lunch advocates since the Reagan administration. Most would agree that the conventional variety, made with high fructose corn syrup and other highly processed ingredients, shouldn’t qualify as a serving of veggies—but True Made Foods is turning this question on its head with its line of veggie-packed condiments. Made with tomatoes, spinach, carrots and butternut squash, True Made’s Original Ketchup provides fiber, iron, calcium and vitamins A, C and B6—nutrients conventional ketchups don’t have. Just as important, this ketchup is delicious, as are True Made’s BBQ and Veracha (think veggie-filled sriracha) sauces. All the True Made Foods products are a tasty and healthy take on how to remake conventional foods.
A growing number of consumers are clamoring for clean energy shots and supplements that can provide an energy boost without massive amounts of caffeine and synthetic additives. That’s why we were excited to see at Expo East 2015 the launch of Vita V, a Certified Organic energy shot made with baobab, mangosteen, acai, pomegranate, banana and pear. Unlike many other energy shots, Vita V tastes like a juice smoothie—one that provides a natural energy punch from the organic caffeine and baobab in the product. Knowing that sourcing organic ingredients such as baobab is no simple task, we’re impressed that Vita V is committed to organic certification. Vita V is also non-GMO and gluten-free certified.
So good! Wildbrine’s Kimchi Crisps hit the snacking sweet spot. As Wildbrine is an established player in the growing fermented, probiotic food space, we were excited to see great innovation extending kimchi and fermented foods into a portable, snack-worthy format. With a great taste and so many valuable characteristics going for it, we imagine these will do quite well in the market. They're tasty, spicy and have a nice crisp, plus they're made with clean, plant-based, whole-food ingredients. Raw, vegan, gluten free and paleo. And to top all off, live, probiotic fermented kimchi. Yum!
You’ve seen nutrition bars that feature meat. And jerky made from animals of all ilk (beef, bison, pork, turkey, chicken) and unusual, eye-catching flavors. But we nominated Wilde for a NEXTY because we were blown away with the new brand’s meat-based bars made with grass-fed beef, bison and turkey, and tasty add-ins like date paste, strawberries, ground flax seeds, beets, quinoa, black pepper and more. Wilde developed a proprietary process to slow-bake the bars to make them shelf-stable, healthier (each bar delivers just 2.5 grams fat, 100 calories, 4 grams sugar and 10 to 11 gram protein) and to have an excellent texture. Plus, the branding is awesome!
Yummari was inspired by the Rarámuri people from the Copper Canyon of Mexico. This tribe of celebrated endurance runners rely on indigenous foods (like chia) to help them run impressive distances. They inspired Jason and Catherine Walsh, a couple of athletes themselves, to create their own superfood bites. With hemp and chia as the main ingredients, Yummari is on board with the hemp trend and offers a nutritious, non-GMO dual superfood endurance nugget.
This is the ultimate “trade-up brand.” That means once you’ve established yourself as a supplement taker, then you trade up to higher quality. Higher quality, like third-party tested. Like non-GMO. Like protective plastic seals on new bottles that enrobe the entire bottle, not just where the cap and bottle meet. Like dark amber glass bottles to further protect the nutrients. Bluebonnet boasts deeper transparency of ingredients through the value chain than most. Whoever heard of kosher fish oil? The company has a rabbi on speed dial and, being that it's based in Texas, we’re curious to know if the yarmulke is shaped like a cowboy hat. Kosher rooms are separated in the facility. The fish oil also comes in triglyceride form, not ethyl ester, so that gives the oil superior absorption because it’s in the same molecular form found in actual fish.
Whole-food supplements are now gaining sway both with consumers as well as manufacturers, who have finally figured out how to source ingredients that qualify. Garden of Life was one of the early pioneers of the practice. The company is now continuing to revolutionize supplements by going organic. There’s a difference between the “holy grail” of true certified organic supplements, versus those companies that use the Made With Organic label, meaning at least 70 percent organic, compared with those companies that are neither certified organic nor made with organic but just sprinkle organic material in the product. The expense, effort, supply chain and commitment to get certified both organic and non-GMO is a huge undertaking. Kudos for Garden of Life for pioneering new ground.
We’re psyched to see the first brand to take ahiflower to market. That would be the plant-based, full-spectrum omega containing ALA, SDA and the healthy omega-6, GLA. This is the only plant source of full-spec omegas that isn’t genetically engineered, all grown in luscious plots in England. As their clever tagline goes, “Better than flax, not from fish.” The SDA is a bona-fide omega-3 that is leagues more effective in converting to EPA (about 30 percent) than the flaxes and chias (about 5 percent, though higher for women and vegans). We also like the traceability efforts going on with ahiflower.
In many cases, crowded labels make for confused consumers. That certification mark may mean something to the manufacturer, but it’s an alphabet soup of abbreviations for the shopper plucking the product off the shelf. Nature’s Plus went beyond the mark to provide a glossary. The Source of Life certified organic whole food line is an accomplishment on its own, but we really liked the back off the box, where the entire space is devoted to not just the certifications and product purity claims marks but also explaining what each of them mean.
Traditionally, the dietary supplement industry has lagged behind food and beverage in launching products that are positioned to reach whole new segments of customers. NoorVitamins is an exception with its growing line of Halal-certified supplements, which are made without any pork- or alcohol-derived ingredients, in accordance with Muslim dietary principles. The line includes a multivitamin and mineral, omega-3 fish oil, vitamin D, children’s gummy multi and women’s prenatal vitamin. Along with selling products for the growing Muslim community in the United States, NoorVitamins is committed to doing social good. For every NoorVitamins product sold during the month of Ramadan this year, the company gave a full meal to a displaced Syrian family through its #NoorishTheHungry campaign.
Get your inner ommmm on at Organic India—a certified B Corp. The company rocks turmeric/curcumin in everything from its Tulsi tea (a yummy turmeric/ginger tea with both hot and cooling notes) to its Turmeric Formula supplement. But what we really like is Joy! That’s a supplement made with certified organic herbs and said to uplift mood. Joy! aids in the quest for vitality, chills out any stressed, frazzled nerves, and helps direct people to their true natural state of peace and happiness. Joy to the world, Jeremiah.
Probiotics are a good space for skepticism. The idea of “good bugs” is all well and good, but identifying the right “good bugs” and then getting them past the general havoc of the stomach and duodenum and into the regions of the gut where they can let their good side out is no simple trick. Enteric coating is one method, but some consumers aren’t going to like complex chemical names like polyvinylpyrrolidone. Probulin has taken another approach using an extract of brown seaweed that reacts to stomach acids and other bumps on the ride to the colon in a way closer to nature than chemistry to get the beneficial bacteria through. This allows Probulin to step out of the CFUs arms race. The 10 billion microorganisms sounds like a lot, but there is at least one manufacture promising 1 trillion CFUs. The innovation and a core team that includes an M.D. and an N.D. stand out in a probiotics space where the speculation sometimes outpaces the science.
The probiotic arms-race just accelerated with this great approach to probiotic supplementation. Progurt boasts 1 trillion CFUs per dose--that’s 10 times the next highest CFU count we have seen on the market, and maybe 40 times the average probiotic supplement. Even more important is Progurt's approach to the category. Based upon “multiple human probiotic isolates” promising to be identical to those found in a healthy human gut from birth, this unique and disruptive approach to delivering a diversity of native probiotics to boost our microbiota is just what the category needs.
Skoop initially caught our eye because the brand is so on trend with its line of whole-food-sourced nutritional powders. Formulated following “the mad science of mother nature,” the Healthy Skoop products feature short, clean ingredient lists. For example, the Ignite Beet Blend is made with only organic beets, d-ribose, organic pomegranate, organic agave and organic stevia, and the powder can be added to water or any liquid to create a healthy sports drink for endurance athletes or the average weekend warrior. Through its Project Produce program, which is a partnership with the Chef Ann Foundation, the company donates one serving of fresh fruits and veggies to a school lunch program in the United States for every serving of its products sold.
It’s not often you see a supplement company, selling a “medical device,” but we like the common sense approach behind Terry Natural’s FastBlock. FastBlock doesn’t appear to be a “device” to the untrained-in-FDA-regulations eye. It’s a nasal spray bottle that sprays a liquid that acts like a slick coating for the nasal passages, preventing allergens from finding a grip and causing that sniffing, sneezing misery that has so many of us resenting the glories of spring. We’re interesting in taking it for a test sniff when the pollen count gets high, but a new way to fight hay fever without medication has a lot of appeal.
Let’s face it, fruit flies are gross. They are disease-carrying pests that can spoil a festive atmosphere in the blink of an eye. Until now, the only treatment has nasty chemical pesticides that may kill the fruit flies but are a hazard in themselves--especially around food. Mat Franken from Aunt Fannie’s has discovered a natural, safe and effective solution to the fruit fly problem. He even managed to create a fun, playful and colorful brand to convey a simple, back-to-nature approach.
Plastic wrap is a ubiquitous environmental hazard, and one Vermont family has come up with something better. Bees Wrap founder Sarah Kaeck offers beeswax coated cotton as a reusable alternative to plastic wrap. With only 4 ingredients and the heavenly scent of beeswax, Bees Wrap effectively seals food (produce, bread, even liquids) using the warmth of your hands to seal the fabric to the container. Washable with soap and cool water and reusable for up to a year, Bees Wrap is a simple, elegant solution to everyday plastic waste.
For supporters of the farm-to-table movement, “nose to tail” resonates. But how about for natural beauty devotees? This appears to be a first, a concept that Fat Face touts thanks to its use of tallow—rendered beef fat from free range, grass-fed cattle that the company says helps to nourish and moisturize the skin. Funky SKUs like Body Butta and Baby Butta are also aligned with the paleo food tribe, using only pure ingredients. Love it or loathe it, slathering up with animal fat is undeniably forward-thinking concept that shows how natural beauty continues to build on emerging trends in the food and beverage category.
A company based on results and science, HiQ has potential to make a bold statement in the natural skin care market that luxury does have a place in this space. A line currently consisting of just two SKUs, HiQ (High IQ, get it?) encourages maturation in the natural beauty category through a high-end, luxury line that uses pure ingredients and is based on clinical studies. The company has built its formulations on the research-backed antiaging benefits of CoQ10 (nope, not just for supplements) and has formulated with the potent concentration used in studies—3 percent, which is also the highest amount allowed in retail skin care products. Smart? We think so.
A young company with a big heart is how Humble Brush describes itself—and it has certainly captured ours with a truly commendable mission that is at the core of its products. Embracing the one-for-one model, for every sustainable toothbrush sold, the company provides a brush to someone in need. But its efforts don’t stop there. The company believes that everyone should have access to health care—and that oral care is an important yet often neglected piece to that. Hence Humble Brush is also responsible for the Humble Smile Foundation, a nonprofit that not only supplies products to those in need but also the education necessary for reinforcing the importance of oral hygiene for systemic health and total well-being.
Drop this stick of activated charcoal into a bottle of tap water and drink up without hesitation: It'll bond with all toxins at a molecular level, leaving fresh, pure H2O. You don’t even have to remove the stick from the water; it’s that effective. One stick lasts four months, making it a cost-effective choice, too. And the packaging is recyclable and compostable, to boot. Activated charcoal is all the rage in beverages at the moment, but the simple practicality of Kishu should not be overlooked. No more plastic water filters, and no more plastic bottles going to waste—can you imagine?
MiiR is dedicated to designing products that inspire people to “get out and live active, connected lives, while empowering others to rise above poverty." Mission is at the heart of the company: Each bottle bought provides one person with water for an entire year through a partnership with charity: water. What's more, when you register the bracelet that comes with your bottle, MiiR will send photos and details of the specific water project that you helped fund months later. MiiR also offers bicycles and packs with the same "Track Your Impact" model, in partnership with World Bicycle Relief and One Day's Wages. We hope this kind of large-scale vision for change is what's next for more brands.
Serenity Acres Farm makes you feel like you really know each goat that produced the milk in your simple yet decadent bar soap--just short of hearing them yell like humans. A fun, unique take on the transparency and traceability movement, this family-owned company based in northern Florida includes the name, birthday and other “personal” information about each goat on the package. Plus, its star ingredient—nutrient-dense goat’s milk—is a great way to freshen up a sometimes stale category.
There’s a whole wide world of beautiful natural ingredients out there that American consumers only get a little taste of. That’s why we love what this Australian beauty company has done to U.S. cosmetics, incorporating hand-harvested native Australian ingredients such as kakadu plum, which has the world’s highest vitamin C content; Illawarra Flame Tree, an ingredient that helps support collagen production; and brightening caviar lime. Aboriginal art paints the packaging, connecting the dots between the keen branding and the products inside the package and further reinforcing that these exotic ingredients will be a welcomed addition to the natural beauty space.
There’s a whole wide world of beautiful natural ingredients out there that American consumers only get a little taste of. That’s why we love what this Australian beauty company has done to U.S. cosmetics, incorporating hand-harvested native Australian ingredients such as kakadu plum, which has the world’s highest vitamin C content; Illawarra Flame Tree, an ingredient that helps support collagen production; and brightening caviar lime. Aboriginal art paints the packaging, connecting the dots between the keen branding and the products inside the package and further reinforcing that these exotic ingredients will be a welcomed addition to the natural beauty space.
Every year at Natural Products Expo East, New Hope Natural Media's editors and trend researchers find the products and brands they think represent the most innovative edge of the natural products industry, as well as its deeply held social and environmental values. The best of the best receive NEXTY nominations (read the criteria for nominees here).
In December, we'll announce the Editors' Choice winners in the food & beverage; supplements & ingredients; and beauty & natural living categories. But our opinions only mean so much; we also want to recognize the brands that you think are on to something. Get to know this year's NEXTY nominees, listed here alphabetically by category (supplements/ingredients start at slide 25, and beauty/natural living starts at slide 35), and then vote for your favorite brands on our NEXTY polling page beginning Oct. 21 (voting is now closed).
The Editors' Choice and Popular Vote winners will be announced in December and featured on newhope360.com and in an awards ceremony at Natural Products Expo West 2016.
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