Secaucus, NJ – Kosherfest 2011 Continues To Impress (video-photos)

Secaucus, NJ – Kosherfest, the world’s largest kosher trade show, has returned to the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey, for a two day show that kicked off yesterday, featuring more exhibitors, more attendees, more sessions and a host of kosher products that dazzle the eye.

Over 4,000 people attended yesterday’s show and Kosherfest founder Menachem Lubinsky, President and CEO of Lubicom Marketing and Consulting, one of the producers of the annual event, said that he expects to see an equal number of people returning today for the second and final day of Kosherfest.

Video By Yosef Shidler of CJ STUDIOS

While Lubinsky recalls that in Kosherfest’s early days he had trouble attracting exhibitors to the trade show, this year’s show, featuring 300 exhibitors and 369 booths, was jam packed, with an atmosphere that was described by one visitor as electric.

“I have been coming to Kosherfest for years but this year there are so many booths that it seems as if every available inch of the room is occupied,” Eli Weinstock, Sales and Marketing Consultant for Blue and White Foods told VIN News. “It was a very healthy showing, something that is very positive in this difficult economy.”

Three products distributed by Long Island City based Blue and White Foods took home awards for best new product: Dorot Foods Fresh Frozen Pesto Cubes, Taamti Meat Flavor Meatless Bourekas and Sabra Guacamole. Other products named winners in the prestigious New Product Awards competition, which is judged by top supermarket buyers and industry insiders, included Jack’s Gourmet Jamaican Style Jerk Chicken Sausage, Osem’s Bamba Halva with Sesame Cream Filling, MIKEE’s Mango Duck Sauce, and The Kosher Cook’s Royal Challah Silicone Bakeware Pan, a challah shaped silicone pan that produces perfectly shaped kosher challahs without any braiding. Fruit of the Land’s Tishbi Passion Fruit and Strawberry Champagne Preserves took home the coveted Best Overall New Product award.

Both days of Kosherfest featured book signings by noted cookbook authors and educational sessions on a variety of topics including mainstreaming kosher food items, leveraging technology to employ a mobile sales force, Canadian kashrus certification and a panel discussion on the meeting the demands of today’s more sophisticated kosher palette. In addition to cooking demonstrations by prolific cookbook author Susie Fishbein, today’s show will also feature a Kosherfest first: an Iron Chef style cooking competition, where three chefs from top rated kosher restaurants will have forty five minutes to create an outstanding dish featuring a mystery ingredient, with the winner taking home a $1,000 cash prize.

Lubinsky said that this year’s show had a distinctly different feel than in previous years as kosher food heads in a more sophisticated direction.

“In the past we have seen companies tweaking existing products in attempt to create something new, but this year’s show was markedly different,” said Lubinsky. “We saw a lot of new trendy items, like beef jerky, gourmet sauces and products featuring meat substitutes that taste exactly like real meat. The kosher industry is growing by leaps and bounds and both the high end stores and the discounters, including stores like Target, Costco, 7-11 and Trader Joe’s, almost every category of retail, is now heavily invested in kosher food. They don’t do it for altruistic reasons – they do it because kosher food makes money.”

Weinstock echoed Lubinsky’s sentiments.

“The quality of the actual booths at the show this year was much higher than in the past and it is evident in both the product packaging and the quality of the exhibitions that marketing has taken a giant step up in the kosher food business,” reported Weinstock. “There were many relevant chain store buyers from the general market at this year’s show and it is evident that the kosher food industry is starting to tailor its product to the more sophisticated consumer and buyer, kosher or not.”