Nutracon and Engredea, two focused ingredient and supply chain events in the U.S. nutrition industry, posted record attendance last week at the Anaheim Convention Center. Nutracon and Engredea, co-located with Natural Products Expo West, are events devoted to innovation and next-generation product development across the healthy food, beverage, dietary supplement, bioactive and nutricosmetic markets. Nutracon and Engredea drew over 220 exhibitors and 7,500 buyers and influencers over five days.

“The global healthy products market is booming, and so are the ingredients and innovation that fuel it,” noted Len Monheit, Executive Director of Engredea and Nutrition Business Journal.  “Early estimates indicate 8% nutrition industry growth and 6.5% supplement industry growth in 2011.  To keep pace we’ve made great investments this year including a large hosted VIP program, the Innovodex mobile app, the Innovation Station and a new focus on international business development via the Market QuickStart program in India and China. These investments are what defines Nutracon and Engredea today, but this is just the start – we plan to build on these exciting programs for many years to come.”

“I get more work done in three days here than three weeks in the office,” said Gabe Herrick, Director of Sales for Bioenergy Life Science.  “We continue to meet the right contacts and leads that spur innovation and I can’t wait to start following up.”

Innovation, a theme at the show, took center stage at Nutracon as Zychrome from InterHealth Nutraceuticals and Portobello Mushroom Powder from Dole Nutrition Institute took home the 2012 NutrAward for Best New Ingredient and Best New Finished Product,respectively.

2012 also marked the launch of New Hope Natural Media’s Hall of Legends, an awards ceremony recognizing those individuals who have made considerable contributions to the success of the natural products industry. 

In addition, Functional Ingredients magazine editors combed the Engredea show floor to identify and honor the most innovative exhibitors with Editors’ Choice Awards.  The 2012 Editors’ Choice Award winners include:

For the supply channel’s latest news and coverage of innovation and science visit www.newhope360.com/engredea.  Engredea and Nutracon 2013 will be held March 6 - 10, in Anaheim, CA.  Click on Engredea virtual events, Market Quickstart and The NBJ Summit for upcoming event details.  Follow us on twitter @Nutracon and @Engredea and review #Nutracon and #Engredea for an in-depth social recap of the show.

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The trade show for the global supply market, Engredea showcases new ingredients, technologies, applications and services for healthy foods-and-beverages, dietary supplement/bioactive and nutricosmetic markets.  Engredea is co-located with Natural Products Expo West and the Nutracon Conference.

Nutracon is the premier education and networking conference for the health and nutrition industry. The conference provides relevant insights for innovation based on science and technology, case studies and market.