Food Kosher Food Show Has 400 New Items New York — From kosher TV din- ners that need no refrigeration to gourmet popcorn in 25 flavors, kosher food has come a long way from matzah balls and gefilte fish. (There's even kosher dog and cat food, plus Chanukah treats for your favorite pooch!) Today, the kosher food industry is $7 billion strong and growing, with many companies making existing products kosher and producing more variety for the kosher consumer. This year's kosher food trade show took place at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City Oct. 28-29, with more than 400 exhibitors from all over the world. Special showcases included an exhi- bition of Jewish food advertising as well as Jewish culture in the U.S. from the 1880s-1945, cooking demonstrations with celebrity chefs, and guest appearances of comedian Jackie Mason, chef Paul Prudhomme, Vice Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert, and others. Among the new convenience foods are such products as: Old City Cafe brand frozen cheese enchiladas in a choice of salsa roja or salsa verde, as well as their new three-cheese pizza bagels; Meal Mart's Dinners for 2 Oriental-style frozen entrees; pre- cooked tapas and Spanish paella from BPK Traders of Spain; King Kold's Orltalia brand frozen pizzas in four different toppings including Margherita, green olive, 3-cheese or grilled vegetable. Also, from Italy, Mey's frozen pastas including lasagna Bolognese, lasagna with artichoke, and penna alla norma; Milmar Food Group's stuffed chicken breast continental; Empire Chicken's new chicken Kiev; and Jackie Mason's Famous Broadway Cheesecake, lactose-free in three fla- vors from Rhoda's Best. Many of the new product entries come from the oil, sauce, marinade and dressings category, both imported as well as made in the U.S. From Italy, Pietro Coricelli offers five new types of extra virgin olive oil. Once hard to find with kosher certification, Vidalia onion dressings are available from sev- eral companies including Golding Farms and Vita Foods. There are salsas accented with many flavors, including eggplant salsa, corn and bean salsa from Golding Farms, and Bone Suckin' Sauce brand big chunk style salsa from Ford's Foods Inc. Dipping sauces are popular too, such as chili roasted garlic, and roasted peanut sesame from Wild Thymes, as are glazes — orange apricot and mango chipotle are new entries from Douglas Foods. My Gourmet Oven offers pareve and lactose-free cookie mixes, includ- ing dark chocolate chunk and white chocolate macadamia nut; Enjoy Life Foods produces wheat and gluten-free cookies that also don't contain dairy, peanuts, eggs, soy or artificial preserva- tives; Barry's Bakery Twists, cholesterol and dairy-free, introduces new flavors: Key Lime and California Almond. Hodgson Mill's has two new healthy mixes including whole wheat brownie mix and whole wheat blueberry; Ford's Fancy Food's new wine nuts (chardon- nay, merlot and margarita flavors) and Dr. Lankin's Awesome Almonds in cinnamon vanilla, cocoa java, and orange vanilla. Poppy Chocky Wocky Doodah offers gourmet popcorn in 25 flavors, including fat-free fruit salad, jalapeno, watermelon and blue raspberry; Pita Snax's baked pita chips come in five flavors, including jalapeno & cheddar and sea salt, while Stacey's Soy Thin Crisps offer white cheddar and BBQ flavors. From Italy and Poland come new kosher certified cheeses: Kopernick S.A. (Poland) offers semi-hards, including radamer, parvarti and rolada types; Mey Brand offers cholov yisroel mozzarella, cacciota and ricotta. New juice flavors and packaging from Ceres (now in 10 oz. glass bot- tles) and Naked Juice's Creme de Soy made their debut at Kosherfest; for tea time, try Bigelow's new line of vanilla teas, including vanilla caramel, vanilla hazelnut and French vanilla; from Wissotsky comes cranberry splash and Masala Chai tea. New wines from Kedem, Abarbanel and Tierra Salvaje, as well as compa- nies exhibiting for the first time included Mey Brand (Italy) and PBK Traders of Spain. They introduced new • • • E 1•• AUTHENTIC whites and reds, as well as cham- pagnes. New products of special note included Mojave Gold Flame raisins on the vine; TastyTrim zero-calorie flavor enhancer in six flavors are dia- betic friendly, have no carbohy- drates and come in 1 gram pack- ets. KosherPets Moist Canned Dog & Cat Food, made with human- grade ingredients, is kosher for Passover, and is now offering kosher Chanukah treats. After you're done eating you can keep your breath fresh and clean with Kosher Breath FX strips in mint with caffeine. They will soon be available with vitamin supplements. AUTHENTIC &Alia& Verde w art 110 1,: dine New kosher offerings from Old City Cafe THREE CHEESE . tEiPSHpItN Hiller's Donates Israeli Profits Through Dec. 31, Hiller's Markets will donate all profits from purchases of Israeli products at its stores to the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's 2004 Annual Campaign, specifically to support educational and emergency programs in Israel. "Israel needs and deserves our support, and that includes increasing our commerce in Israeli products," said Jim Hiller, president of Hiller's Markets. The family-owned Hiller's has six locations, in Ann Arbor, Berldey, Commerce Township, Northville, Plymouth and West Bloomfield. 11/ 7 2003 89