Congratulations to Organic Valley, recipient of the NEXTY Gold Award for Natural Products Expo West 2020!

Organic Valley exemplifies the NEXTY criteria of innovation, inspiration and integrity. The United States' largest farmer-owned organic cooperative, Organic Valley supports over 1,800 family farms across 34 U.S. states as well as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Organic Valley produces staples such as milk, cheese, eggs, protein shakes, butter, yogurt, organic snack items and more. 

Organic Valley's CROPP Cooperative is based on the hopeful vision to establish a business that embraces organic farming and enables family farm agriculture to be sustainable. Organic Valley is focused on bringing more health to more people, only producing USDA-certified Organic products for consumers.

Taking things one step further, Organic Valley committed to being powered by 100% renewable electricity in October 2017. In 2019, it achieved this goal with its community solar project, allowing the company to cover 100% of its electric energy needs from renewable sources while increasing overall solar energy use in Wisconsin by 15%. 

Congratulations, Organic Valley!

Congratulations to Numi Organic Tea, recipient of the NEXTY Gold Award for Natural Products Expo West 2020!

Numi Organic Tea has been at the forefront of the natural products industry for years. A founding B Corporation member and leading purchaser of Fair Trade Certified teas, Numi is committed to taking care of our global family and the planet we live on. Through ethical business practices, Numi helps fight global warming, reduce plastic waste, and empower tea farming communities around the world. 

Numi exemplifies business as a force for good. In addition to recently announcing its ambitious pledge to become carbon neutral by 2023, Numi provides clean drinking water for tea farmers through its Together for H2OPE program, having provided 10,500 people in Madagascar with access to clean water to date. 

Numi is also a Fair Trade leader, contributing more than $1 million in Fair Trade premiums. Additionally, in 2007 Numi developed its own proprietary continuous improvement program, Fair Labor and Community Benefits Verified. Fair Labor Verified is a complementary program the company administers, ensuring fair wages, safe working conditions, access to healthcare and education and beneficial impacts on farming communities and the surrounding environment.

A leader in sustainable packaging innovation, Numi recently announced its new plant-based tea wrapper, a project 10 years in the making with the OSC2 Packaging Collaborative. Furthermore, Numi continues to push the sustainable packaging conversation forward by identifying opportunities for improvement across its entire supply chain.

Congratulations, Numi Organic Tea!

The NEXTY Awards recognize excellence in the natural products industry, elevating impactful brands and products that inspire a healthy, sustainable future for people and planet.

In the flagship NEXTY Awards, exhibitors of Natural Products Expos nominate their products and send samples to the New Hope Network office for two rounds of judging. 

In the preliminary round, the New Hope Network judging team narrows down hundreds of nominees to a handful of finalists per category. For the final judging, the New Hope Network team is joined by a panel of industry judges to select a single winner in each category, all based on the NEXTY criteria of innovation, inspiration and integrity. 

Best Condition-Specific Supplement

Host Defense Mushrooms MycoBotanicals Complete Calm

Daily stressors can really hyperstimulate our nervous systems. A traditional approach to calming the body, quieting the mind and supporting deep sleep offers a sustainable way to maintaining health and ease in the world. We love this clean, USDA-certified organic approach to supporting cortisol levels. The opposite of a pharmaceutical, Complete Calm offers consumers ease and well-being naturally with full integrity.

Best New Organic Beverage

Enroot Sparkling Cold Brew Tea

Combining organic sparkling cold brew teas with highly flavorful combinations of herbals and juices, Enroot is a low-calorie, all-natural drinking experience that satisfied every judge on our panel. In a world where it’s easier for a woman to become a CEO than a head chef, this woman-led and B Corp-certified company proudly supports the James Beard Women’s Leadership Programs, which works to advance diversity and parity in the food community. Enroot is the first startup in the food and beverage industry to create a comprehensive responsible sourcing policy with SCS Global Services. Enroot works with SCS to continuously audit and identify ways to be more responsible and sustainable, such as ensuring their suppliers adhere to its certifications, no use of plastics and reducing its carbon footprint by moving its bottle mold and production to the U.S.

Best New Meat or Dairy Alternative

Foodies Vegan Pumfu

Are you ready for this? Pumkin seed tofu. Yes, we were as surprised as you might be, which is why Foodies Vegan caught our eye with its USDA-certified Organic Pumfu. Made with just pumpkin seeds and water, this minimally processed, allergy-friendly soy alternative has a similar texture to traditional tofu and picks up flavors just the same. We love this innovative vegan option to slice, dice or fry up for all your plant-based needs.

Best New Natural Living Product

Better Life Power-Strips Laundry Detergent

A Better Life has created a line of laundry detergent strips that rid the world of one more plastic detergent tub and are positioned at an accessible price point of only $14.99 for 48 loads. These detergent strips thankfully lack virgin plastic and their reduced weight and volume allow for a dramatic reduction in transportation carbon footprint. This product stood out for delivering big innovation for your laundry room coupled with a tiny eco footprint for the planet.

Best New Mission-Based Product

Soñar! Foods Grain Free Organic Tortilla Chips

Soñar! means “to dream.” In a nation of dreamers, the female co-founded snack brand’s mission is to celebrate Latin culture. Soñar! does this with their organic, grain-free chips by donating 1% of sales to the Latino Community Foundation. With every bag of delicious chips you purchase, you help cultivate leaders and changemakers. In this period of unrest, communities of color continue to experience discrimination, under representation and inequality. Soñar! raises awareness that diversity is underrepresented in all walks of life. This includes the natural products industry, which has a long way to go to ensure products are inclusive of all cultures coexisting in America.

Best New Organic Food

Bluebird Grain Farms Organic Whole Grain Einka, Emmer Farro, Einka & French Lentil Blend

Einka, or einkorn, is the most ancient wheat we know of. Bluebird Grain Farms in Winthrop, Washington, specializes in such things. They also specialize in plow-to-package production and organic agriculture. We love this product, which combines not just the sweetness of einka with savory french lentils, but also the way they’ve combined the ancient grain with its complementary nitrogen-fixing rotational crop. “Our goal,” they wrote in their nomination, “is to cultivate and mill the most irresistible, nutrient-rich grain we can, while leaving this land healthier for the next generation.” Amen to that!

Best New Product Supporting a Healthy Microbiome

Organic India Psyllium Pre & Probiotic Fiber

Not just another psyllium fiber product, this innovative formulation addresses digestive comfort, but also supports heart health and microbiome support with a combination of fibers, Ayurvedic botanicals, prebiotics and a probiotic blend. Organic India’s Psyllium Pre & Probiotic Fiber basically provide an inspired “one-stop-shop” for your gut microbiome and digestive well-being. That’s not to mention Organic India’s strong integrity with its sourcing. The USDA-certified Organic, vegan-keto-paleo-friendly product means anyone can feel good using this daily.

Best New Frozen Product

JUST Folded JUST Egg

Whether you’re looking to eliminate animal protein from your diet or are simply seeking nutritious and convenient plant-based alternatives for your daily life, the Folded JUST Egg is a revelation. This product taps into the ancient wisdom of the protein-packed mung bean (regularly used in Asia, though not nearly as common an ingredient in the U.S.) to create a shockingly convincing (and non-GMO) egg alternative that requires little prep to plop into a breakfast sandwich or chop into a stir-fry. Thanks to the tireless work of the product development team and food scientists, this product is not only spot on in terms of texture and flavor but its star ingredient became only the seventh plant protein isolate to receive FDA GRAS status. This is more than a great product; it’s a force with far-reaching market implications and a measurable environmental impact thanks to ingredients that consume 98% less water and emit 93% less CO² than animal proteins. Now we can safely say the egg came first!

Best Environmentally Responsible Packaging

Sun & Swell Foods Clean Cookie Bites

Flexible film pouches are a large focus for today’s sustainable packaging movement, and breakthroughs haven’t been easy to come by. Yet Sun & Swell Foods, a young 1% for the Planet brand with tasty USDA-certified Organic snack bites has put sustainable packaging at the heart of their mission. Its whole food Clean Cookie Bites are packaged in compostable stand-up flexible film pouches with responsible labeling for consumer education—both innovation and messaging that the industry needs to see more of.

Best New Personal Care or Beauty Product

Bare Republic Sunscreen Gel Lotion SPF 30

For today’s consumers, holistic health and well-being is about much more than eating nutritious foods—it’s about feeding your skin nontoxic ingredients, nourishing the planet so it will nurture generations to come and being more mindful about nearly every aspect of life. A recent example: the booming mineral sun care category, which is touted for its for human and environmental health benefits. Of course, the integrity of this product is there. And what really stood out in a sea of (eco) conscious sun care was its innovation. Bare Republic delivered on a novel sunscreen delivery that works—the totally sheer gel applies smooth and clear, made with non-nano zinc and soothing plants. Indeed, it’s a bright spot in the sun care space.

Best New Natural Kids Product

Zego Foods Peace.Love.Crispies Cereal

Championing organic ingredients is important to our judging team, but particularly so when it comes to kid's products. Zego Foods is living up to that standard in big ways. Women-owned and a Certified B Corporation, Zego's commitment to transparency is, well, transparent. The organic rice from its one-ingredient Peace.Love.Crispies Cereal is sourced from Lotus Foods' regenerative, responsible supply and Zego can prove it's of the highest quality thanks to its rigorous purity testing. The cereal box features a QR code to scan for all information about ingredient test results. This product sells itself and sets the bar mighty high for the future of the cereal aisle. We can’t imagine anything less for our children.

Best New Meat, Dairy or Animal-Based Product

Patagonia Provisions Atlantic Mackerel

In typical Patagonia Provisions fashion, the certified B Corp and 1% For the Planet company launched a product to bring an environmentally beneficial ingredient to market. Mackerel, a neglected and underutilized fish, is high in protein, omega-3s and B-12 vitamins. Being low in the food chain, these fish quickly reproduce and are sourced from a fisherman co-op in Spain that has been using the same hook and line method for over 100 years. Patagonia Provisions thoroughly evaluated the co-op before partnering with them, working with The Good Fish Foundation to find that the fishery was ultimately rated equivalent to Seafood Watch’s “Best Choice.”

Best New Condiment

Burma Love Foods Company Fermented Tea Leaf Dressing

The secret sauce of San Francisco restaurant Burma Superstar’s famous laphet thoke, or tea leaf salad, is making its way to a growing number of retail outlets. Available in vegan, traditional or spicy, the savory and energizing dressing invites culinary exploration beyond its historical use. While most ingredients are sourced locally in the Bay Area, the (super) star ingredient—top quality organic tea—comes from high in the Namshan mountains of Burma.

Best New Sweet Snack

Solely Fruit Jerky

Solely Fruit Jerky is a sweet snack you can feel good about. Made with three ingredients at most, each bar contains at least one piece of whole organic fruit concentrated down into a portable, shelf-stable bar with no added sugars or flavors. Solely achieves this through a patented cold-pressing process that retains more nutritional value than traditional processing methods (and produces a delicious product!).  Not only is this Fruit Jerky USDA-certified Organic, but its parent company works with farms in Mexico to convert to organic farming and utilizes “ugly” produce that would have otherwise gone to waste.

Best New Ready to Drink Beverage

REBBL Gold Label

Looking for an ultra-functional elixir? Well look no further because REBBL has created its most efficacious and indulgent ready-to-drink beverage yet. After seven years of searching the world for the most treasured, ethically sourced herbal ingredients, REBBL has found them and packed them into its delicious Gold Label drink. Only formulating with ingredients if the product can offer consumers an efficacious dose of its ingredients, this delectable USDA-certified Organic concoction is crafted with high-quality ingredients maca, reishi, maitake, turkey tail, lion’s mane, and ashwagandha to name a few. Further, in 2020, all of REBBL’s bottles will be made from 100% rPET, an incredible feat when it comes to the small supply of food-grade PCR plastic. That's not to mention REBBL's incredible core mission to support human rights and create positive environmental impact. Just a sip of Gold Label will rest your mind, body, and spirit! 

Best New Supplement

Nutiva Organic MCT Protein

Yes, this protein powder is on trend, using plant protein sources from pea, pumpkin, sunflower and hemp. It’s also got 6 grams of MCTs from coconut that’s keto-certified. There’s another 4 grams of BCAAs to support muscles and reduce recovery time. Can it ring any more bells? Well, yes. Nutiva also donates 1% of sales to regenerative agriculture farming practices because so much of the climate crisis can be ameliorated by the agricultural sector. Of course, it’s also USDA-certified Organic, Non-GMO Project verified, paleo, vegan, dairy free, grain free and gluten free, with no added sugar or stevia. Nutiva also enacted the City Fruit Tree Initiative in the Bay Area town of Richmond, giving 13,000 low-income children access to 50,000 pounds of fresh fruit. No extra charge for the warm fuzzies.

Best New Savory or Salty Snack

Brad’s Plant Based Foods Everything Zucchini Veggie Flats

Tangy, seedy and all-around a better better-for-you alternative to your average cracker, Brad’s Veggie Flats are delicious in a way that many vegetable-forward alternatives aren’t. This USDA-certified Organic product also boasts a solid 6 grams of protein per serving and can fulfill two prominent diets—plant-based and keto—through an innovative way to enjoy dips and spreads without unnecessary add-ins. Brad’s only uses organic ingredients that are air dried so as to remain as close to their original form as possible, and because of this the ingredients pack a protein- and fiber-filled punch.

Best New Pantry Food

Zego Foods Double Protein Oats

Peace of mind might well be the rallying cry of this Certified B Corporation, which puts transparency and quality at the fore in everything it does. In this instance, these USDA-certified Organic oats adhere to the highest standards of gluten-free production. Not only are the oats cultivated in such a way so as to avoid cross-contamination with barley or wheat, but they are also tested for allergen and gluten cross contact in addition to over 400 agricultural chemicals and glyphosate. Consumers need only to scan the QR code on the back of the package to gain the results from these purity tests, which can also be verified on the website. These double-protein oats are an exceptional, mission-focused iteration of a pantry staple.

Best New Sweet or Dessert

Undercover Chocolate Co. Dark Chocolate + Pomegranate

A WBENC-certified, women-owned company, Undercover Chocolate Co.’s dark chocolate-covered crispy quinoa snacks with pops of pomegranate are a tasty, guilt-free and gluten-free indulgence. Its products feature a healthy dose of quinoa and are so unique that the company engineered its own equipment and built its own factory especially for it. Created by a mom with two celiac children, the company works with and donates to organizations including Celiac.org, FARE and Eat, which support the celiac disease and allergy communities.

Best New Hemp-CBD Product

Spinster Sisters Co. Muscle Stuff with CBD

This roll-on hemp CBD looks like those orange push-up ice creams from the Good Humor man, but this won’t make you feel regret afterwards-quite the opposite. It smells nice, thanks to classic ingredients that both cool and warm the skin, including camphor, menthol, arnica, cayenne pepper, habanero peppers and essential oils to go along with the 250 mg of non-GMO CBD. It smells just divine. We also like the all-in enviro ethic from the woman-owned Spinster Sisters—the Colorado company is wind-powered and the product itself is biodegradable. There are no sulfates, phthalates, parabens or pesticides present. It makes for a nice, clean, convenient package for sore muscles.

Best New Special Diet Food

Taste Republic Gluten-Free Vegan Cheese Ravioli

Take one bite of Taste Republic's Gluten Free Vegan Cheese Ravioli and we bet you won't miss the traditional take on ravioli. Taste Republic has somehow created an Italian food staple that's allergy-friendly with rich taste and seemingly perfect al dente texture when cooked. As a certified B Corp, this company is also using business as a force for good while transforming what it means to be gluten free. (Hint: You don't have to compromise on taste or texture anymore.)

Best New Tea or Coffee

Pop & Bottle Oat Milk Lattes

Made with organic, non-GMO, fair trade and sustainably sourced ingredients, these three varieties of oat milk lattes are dairy free and right on trend with consumers’ growing desire to eat more plants. Naturally sweetened with dates and coconut cream for a silky drinking experience, these clean-label coffee beverages get a functional boost from add-ins such as ashwagandha and maca (Mocha), marine collagen (Vanilla) and antioxidants (Classic), all served up in uber-attractive, nitro-infused cans. A bonus: This women-owned company claims to have the first beverage in its category to be Certified Glyphosate Residue Free.

Aligned with Natural Products Expos, the NEXTY Consumer Choice Awards are produced with New Hope's technology partner Sampler. Nominating companies work with Sampler to send 1,000 product samples to their target consumer. Winners are then determined based on feedback and ratings gathered from a follow-up survey given to the 1,000 consumers that received the samples.

The three categories for the NEXTY Consumer Choice Awards are: 

• Food or Bevearge 
• Natural Living or Personal Care
• Supplements

NEXTY Consumer Choice Award - Food and Beverage

Albanese Confectionery Ultimate 8 Flavor Gummi Bears

Almost everyone loves a sweet snack, but that shouldn’t have to come with artificial colors or sweeteners. In line with the artisanal craft movement, Albanaese Confectionery’s Gummi Bears use real fruits and vegetables to inspire their flavors.

NEXTY Consumer Choice Award - Natural Living or Personal Care

PATCH Bamboo Bandages

First aid reeks of hospital hallways, latex gloves and chemically laden antiseptics. But natural solutions could be just what your body needs to heal post-scratch, bump or bite. These stripped-down bandage strips are made from 100% organic, stone-milled bamboo fiber with gauze strips that are enhanced with coconut oil, aloe vera or charcoal—perfect for soothing and repairing skin after minor abrasions. The hypoallergenic, biodegradable and compostable bandages, paper wraps and unique cardboard canisters are free of plastics, latex and silicon.

NEXTY Consumer Choice Award - Supplement

Winged CBD Relaxation Gummies

The FUBU of hemp, Winged CBD is made for and made by women. The classy brand’s Relaxation SKU is gummies that each contain 10 milligrams of CBD from organically grown full-spectrum hemp extract, along with evening primrose oil, lemon balm extract, chamomile and L-theanine—all that in one sweet chill pill housed in one beautiful package. Products are third-party lab tested and include a QR code on each product allowing customers to view the Certificates of Analysis from each batch. The product is non-GMO, and the startup company is commendably working on both organic certification and B Corp status.