The wilder side of the shopping aisle

They flocked to the venue in hoards: high-tech healers, anti-aging devotees and organic foodies searching for the Next Big Ingredient -- harvested (naturally, of course) from the mountains, lakes and forests of what seemed like every small, hard-to-get-to country on Earth.

From Friday through Sunday, an estimated 40,000 merchandisers and retailers were expected to throng through 2,500 booths and 10 pavilions at the Anaheim Convention Center to take in Natural Products Expo West -- one of the country’s largest trade shows, and a debuting platform for the newest, weirdest, wildest and healthiest in the natural food industry.

“Before it’s the hottest thing on the shelves, it’s the hottest thing at the show,” boasts the expo slogan -- and that is probably true. This is the place where buyers from Wild Oats and Whole Foods jostle with restaurateurs and manufacturers to decide what to put on their shelves, in their muffins or into their skin care lotions.

Some products will end up on supermarket shelves. Others will never see the light of day. Performance here can make or break a product -- or even a small company.

Friday morning, visitors lingered at stalls hawking nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals, natural colorings and flavorings and other raw ingredients. They braved the crowds to sample soy bratwurst and mangoni juice (a potent antioxidant blend of goji berries, mangosteens and noni).

They gathered up brochures for chlorine-free diapers, high-grade tofu, beverages to feed the skin, coffees that will improve eyesight, and cookies that will lower cholesterol.

And -- aisle after aisle after aisle -- visitors sampled Acai juice (sweet), Bio-Noni for women (slightly bitter), and triple-chocolate anti-stress bars (very chocolaty). They quaffed samples of orange-flavored curcumin juice and raspberry-flavored goji juice. They nibbled on a cornucopia of gluten-free foods: pretzels, breakfast bars, breads and brownie mixes.

On one griddle, steak strips of tofu sizzled, and hungry convention-goers snapped them up as fast as they were served. They tasted -- well -- like meat.

“That’s actually one of our top complaints on our consumer line,” said the tofu-steak hawker for Morningstar Farms. “It’s too much like meat.”

Every product, it seemed, came with a miraculous claim, a life-extending ingredient or an amazing story. Or all three. And here, inside the bubble of the convention center, no one had to back anything up.

“This is the world’s most powerful Acai formula,” explained Darcy Reum of Amazon Thunder, at a stand of drink machines spinning deep purple liquid. “It has 10 times the antioxidants of grapes and two times that of blueberries. Surfers and martial artists say it gives them incredible energy. In Brazil they sell it in carts on the beach.”

He lowered his voice: “In Brazil, the farmers they take you aside and they say, ‘Amigo, it’s a natural Viagra.’ ”

Expo West is the brainchild of Doug Greene, former editor-publisher of Natural Foods Merchandiser, the industry’s trade publication. It has grown beyond his imagining, he says. When he put on the first show 25 years ago, he expected 50 to 100 people -- but 3,500 showed up.

“It was a sea of people coming across the parking lot,” he says. “All bright-faced, all social rebels in a healthy way, all passionate about good nutrition and making the world a cleaner, safer place to live and grow families.”

To this day, the organizers keep that ideology in mind: This year they took care to construct the expo props out of sustainable products, using materials such as muslin drapes, recycled carpeting and plyboo (a hybrid of cheap plywood and fast-growing, renewable bamboo).

But the event has become a big business. From a small gathering of like-minded retailers and merchandisers looking to sell healthful products and save the world, it’s grown into a polished national company -- New Hope Natural Media -- that produces several magazines, runs trade shows on both coasts, and has done expos in Asia.

Europe is next, says New Hope President Fredrik Linder.

At Expo West, trends are forecast in industry-only workshops -- while out on the exhibit floor, retailers do their best to make them come true.

Judging by market research, consumers can expect to see an explosion in functional foods in 2006 -- with added nutritional ingredients such as vitamins or herbs, says David Browne, director of content services for SPINS, an information and service provider for the natural products industry.

Consumers will also see continued growth in the rapidly expanding $800-million wheat-free, gluten-free product market, Browne says. They’ll also notice a whole slew of product offerings -- such as coffees, teas and chocolates -- that are marketed as fair trade (meaning a fair price is paid directly to the farmer).

And don’t skip the funky health-inducing ingredients.

“We’re seeing an increase in ingredients we hadn’t seen before, like cranberry seed oil -- another source of beneficial fatty acids,” says Browne.

Pomegranate and Acai, the Brazilian berry, both touted as antioxidants, will pop up in products they have never been in before said Browne. And companies will come up with new ways to market safer, healthier, purer meat and seafood products.

Here are the some of the other category forecasts by the natural products pundits -- along with their catchy names.

* Rise of the gray goddess: Baby boomers will try to prevent disease through diet, exercise, supplements and spirituality.

* Food insecurity: Consumers will focus even more on products that are free of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, mad cow disease and avian flu, and will be willing to pay a premium.

* Pantry prescriptions: Consumers want antioxidants from foods rather than supplements.

* Emerald cities: Homeowners, school districts, universities and cities will begin to demand eco-friendly solutions from pest and weed control companies.

* Integrative medicine: Supermarkets will become a one-stop shop for health and fitness, with some even opening clinics.

The claims and the hoopla can really set your aura spinning. Luckily convention-goers can stop at the Aura Video Station on the way out and get a quick reading with Aura consultant Gabor Petrovics.

Just put your hand on the magic machine and voila, the imaging station processes your intimate energy data, producing a snapshot of your aura; a pie chart for your body, mind and spirit; a graph of energy levels; and a color wheel of sexuality.

“There is a lot of physical energy! You are feeling very creative! You are very excited!” Petrovics pronounces.

Who wouldn’t be, after a morning of tasting, detoxing and ogling the antioxidant- and goji-drenched future?