The Natural List

n this episode of The Natural List, co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith tackle some of the biggest topics shaping the natural products industry in Q1 of 2025, from tariffs and supply chain disruptions to food waste reduction and in-store retail innovations. With Natural Products Expo West just three weeks away , they also provide an inside look at the show’s wildfire relief initiatives, sup...

Natural Products Expo West is the industry’s biggest stage for emerging trends, groundbreaking innovations and the next wave of category-defining brands in natural CPG. With Expo West 2025 just around the corner, The Natural List is revisiting last year’s biggest takeaways in a special re-release of its 2024 show preview episode.    In this episode, co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne S...

n this episode of The Natural List, co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith are joined by Steven Jamieson, health and body care merchandiser at PCC Community Markets and guest judge for the 2025 Natural Products Expo NEXTY Awards. With 13 years of experience in the natural products industry, Steven shares what surprised him most from the judging process, including standout product trends, ingre...

Co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith are back with a jam-packed episode exploring the key trends shaping the natural and organic products industry as we gear up for Natural Products Expo West 2025 in Anaheim. Adrienne kicks things off with highlights from her recent trip to Spain, home to the world’s second-largest fish market, before offering a sneak peek at Expo West’s must-see sessions. D...

In this episode of The Natural List, co-host Jessica Rubino teams up with New Hope Network Senior Retail Reporter Douglas Brown to dive into the hot retail trends shaping 2025. Whether it’s strategic merchandising for plant-based and non-alcoholic products or leveraging storytelling to connect with consumers around regenerative agriculture, this episode offers actionable insights to help retailers...

In the first episode of The Natural List for 2025, co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith are joined by Kim Shaw, show director for Natural Products Expo West, to discuss exciting updates and changes coming to Expo West in Anaheim, California, March 4-7, 2025. With an estimated 68,000 attendees and a dynamic schedule, this year’s show promises to be bigger and better than ever.  Kim share...

In this episode of The Natural List , co-host Adrienne Smith is joined by New Hope Network’s Douglas Brown and Nancy Coulter-Parker for a behind-the-scenes look at the 2025 Natural Products Expo West NEXTY Awards preliminary judging.    During the preliminary round, the New Hope Network team samples and deliberates over several days and hundreds of products to select finalists in each ca...

In this episode of The Natural List , co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith are joined by Anthony Corsaro, co-founder of the RegenBrands ecosystem, to discuss the dynamic intersection of regenerative agriculture and consumer packaged goods (CPG). Anthony shares the journey behind launching the RegenBrands Institute, RegenBrands Coalition and RegenBrands Capital—all designed to help regenerati...

In this episode of The Natural List , co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith offer a sneak peek at New Hope Network’s 25 transformative trends set to shape the CPG and retail landscape in 2025. From reimagined beauty rituals and personalized health solutions to evolving approaches to convenience, sustainability and inclusivity, these trends provide a glimpse into the future of consumer demand...

In this episode of  The Natural List , co-host Jessica Rubino shares highlights from the Nutrition Capital Network (NCN) Fall Investor Meeting , where entrepreneurs and investors gathered to explore innovations and business strategies in the health and wellness industry. Jessica discusses the shift in the investment landscape, with investors now focusing on profitability over fast growth. Plu...

In this episode of "The Natural List," Erika Craft, market research analyst for New Hope Network’s Nutrition Business Journal, joins the discussion to share insights from her recent visit to SupplySide West 2024. Erika highlights some of the industry’s most promising trends, including a growing focus on women’s health, longevity and opportunities with pharmaceutical innovations such as GLP-1 and h...

Ever wonder what it takes to win a prestigious NEXTY award? In this episode of The Natural List , co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith are joined by New Hope Network's Douglas Brown, senior retail reporter, and Nancy Coulter-Parker, content marketing director, to discuss the essential dos and don’ts for submitting nominations leading up to Natural Products Expo West. With the final submissio...

In this episode of The Natural List , co-host Jessica Rubino is joined by Bill Giebler, content and insights director for Nutrition Business Journal (NBJ), to discuss the upcoming documentary The DSHEA Effect . Produced by New Hope Network and NBJ, the documentary celebrates 30 years of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), passed on Oct. 25, 1994, which transformed the dietary...

In this week's episode of The Natural List , co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith dive into the rapidly expanding healthy beverage space, highlighting products that blend convenience with functional ingredients. From ready-to-drink beverages with supplement panels to products such as Bloom Nutrition’s colostrum and collagen peptides—focused on gut health and skin, hair and nail health—functi...

In this episode of The Natural List , co-host Adrienne Smith is joined by Jenna Fitch, senior conference content director, to discuss the latest topics shaping Natural Products Expo West 2025. The conversation kicks off with an update on the speaker application window, open until Nov. 1, and the call to bring impactful conversations to the table, specifically on topics such as artificial intellige...

In this episode of The Natural List, co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith explore the latest news and trends in the natural products industry, starting with the excitement of the 2025 Natural Products Expo West NEXTY Awards. For the first time, nominations are open early, running until Dec. 2, and cover 35 categories, including new favorites like non-alcoholic beverages, beauty and packaged...

In this episode of The Natural List, co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith sit down with The Angel Group’s Founding Member Adam Spriggs and Managing Partner Chris Robb for an informal crash course in today's angel investing landscape.   Founded just under five years ago, The Angel Group is a  community of investors who are passionate about the food and beverage industry and supporti...

In this episode of The Gist, Nutrition Business Journal’s Content and Insights Director Bill Giebler joins co-host (and fellow co-chair of the NBJ Summit, alongside Tom Aarts) Jessica Rubino to pull back the curtain on the upcoming NBJ Summit.  The NBJ Summit is a premier event for the dietary supplement and global nutrition industry and its top CEOs and executives. The theme for 2024 is...

In this episode of The Natural List, co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith welcome Food and Beverage Insider staff writer Scott Miller to weigh in on the functional beverage category.   What makes a beverage “functional?” How do retailers, brands and consumers define this emerging category? And who is ultimately responsible for ensuring consumers are informed about a product’s ingredient...

In this episode of The Gist, co-host Jessica Rubino shines a spotlight on the surge of growth in the wellness and functional beverage category. From opportunities in nonalcoholic beverages to popular ingredients like pre- and probiotics, mushrooms and CBD, retailers are seeing an explosion of wellness and social refreshments. Whether these tasty tonics are intended to optimize health and wellness...

In this episode of The Natural List, co-hosts Adrienne Smith and Jessica Rubino sit down with Founder and CEO of Thrive Natural Care Alex McIntosh. A decade after Thrive’s launch into the clean beauty market, McIntosh reflects on the greatest developments he’s witnessed in the CPG industry, including more diversity, the mainstreaming of the regenerative movement and functionality and performance o...

In this episode of The Gist, co-host Adrienne Smith recaps her weekend in Chicago, IL and shares some highlights from her panel discussion at the 2024 National Restaurant Association Show. Tune in to hear all about it, as well as for a quick review of the show’s natural and organic pavilion and one of the standout trends from the show. She'll also offer a look into what opportunities can come from...

Whether on the shelves of your favorite neighborhood retailer or on the menu at popular restaurants like Chipotle, consumers are “seeing green” in more places than ever; and no, we don’t mean green with envy!   In this episode of The Natural List, co-host Adrienne Smith is joined by HowGood’s SVP of Growth and Innovation Rachel Calomeni and Director of Retail Growth and Innovation Lauren...

In this episode of The Gist, co-host Adrienne Smith is joined by Natural Products Insider’s Content Director Todd Runestad for the latest and greatest in supplements. From functional fungi and the continued rise of “biotics” to the dethroning of statins and the boom in women-centered research and the resulting products, Runestad discusses the ingredients, conditions and delivery formats curre...

In this episode of The Natural List, co-hosts Jessica Rubino and Adrienne Smith are joined by Start-Up CPG’s Founder and CEO Daniel Scharff to discuss popular innovations in natural CPG and their potential “shelf-life” with consumers. From CBD (anything) to spicy flavors and adaptogenic baked goods, we’re peering into our CPG crystal ball and offering up our industry predictions and the rationale...