This year, 2013, was Kosherfest's 25^th anniversary. Kosherfest is aptly called “Noshfest”, since one can browse the show and taste delicious kosher food. We all owe a tremendous amount of hakaras hatov (gratitude and appreciation) to Menachem Lubinsky for his creation of and dedication to Kosherfest, which has been an important factor in the growth of the Kosher food industry.

I attend Kosherfest every year with a number of goals in mind. Among these are to see and taste the delicious new kosher products. I also look for products that will either improve my life or make it easier – in particular, products that would be useful when traveling or to have around for emergencies. I also check out the new products for Passover. In addition to Passover being the busiest season for kosher retailers, I also feel that people are always looking for something to eat on Passover.

Interesting everyday products

Kosherfest exhibitors showed many products that are useful for everyday life:

• Fiber Gourmet makes high-fiber crackers.
• 246 Foods has a shelf-stable pourable ready-to-bake lava cake.
• Taft Foods has a seitan seasoned like schwarma.
• Osem is selling an all-natural soup mix without MSG.
• Kedem now sells fresh (refrigerated) sulfite-free grape juice.
• Cuppa J has Cappuccino and other flavored K cups that are available in both Cholov Yisroel and Pareve.

Travel

The products that I saw at Kosherfest that are useful for the kosher traveler were shelf stable meals and jerky. J & J Poultry and Shultz Foods are new companies providing shelf-stable meals in ready-to-serve containers. Premium Aufshnitt and RJ's are selling meat jerky, and Joburg is selling a South African style jerky which is produced using a different method and has less salt. Salmon jerky is also available from a number of manufacturers.

Passover

Companies are finally making healthy, nutritious cereal for Passover inculding. Matzolah, distributed by Streits, a granola made from whole-wheat matzo farfel mixed with raisins, dried fruit, and nuts and another matza granola made by Manischewitz. These cereal have fiber and protein, and provides a healthy breakfast or snack. There were also quite a few companies selling tasty and/or beautiful desserts for Passover. Gelato Petrini, for example, presented their high-quality ice cream – available in both Cholov Yisroel and Pareve varieties. Another company, First Choice, exhibited kosher-for-Passover baby food.

This year, once again, Kosherfest has demonstrated that the kosher food industry in the United States is continuously vibrant, with varied offerings being created every day to meet the needs of the kosher community.