Craize, Dorot Gardens, and Wonder Juice made a strong case at Expo West 2026. Here’s what clean-label food lovers need to know about these rising brands.
Walk the floor at Natural Products Expo West and something becomes clear fast.
The era of sad “healthy” food is over.
The better-for-you snacks on display in Anaheim this March don’t taste like cardboard or apology. They taste like someone actually cared.
Kayco Beyond, the natural and specialty division of Kayco, brought three of its sharpest brands to the North Hall of the Anaheim Convention Center: Craize, Dorot Gardens, and Wonder Juice.
Each one is solving a real kitchen problem. Each one is doing it without sacrificing flavor, convenience, or a clean ingredient label. Here’s why food lovers should be paying attention.
The Chip-Cracker You Didn’t Know You Were Missing
Let’s be honest: the cracker aisle has been boring for a long time. Most “better-for-you” crackers taste like a rice cake had a very uneventful childhood. Craize is not that.
Fire-griddled rather than fried, Craize is a hybrid that sits confidently between chip and cracker. It’s vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO, and seed oil-free, produced in an allergen-friendly facility. But the headline isn’t the label. It’s the texture.
The crunch hits clean and fast, without that greasy aftermath that leaves your fingers looking like a snack crime scene. Fruits, vegetables, and spices are blended directly into the dough, which means flavor baked in from the start, not dusted on and forgotten.
The five signature flavors cover serious ground:
Everything, Sweet Corn, Guava, Coconut, and Jalapeño Lime.
At Expo West, the brand hosted a “Craize-y” Cocktail Hour pairing these bites with Wonder Juice Sangria, including Air Fryer Craize Meatball Bites and Craize Bites with Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, and Chives. For the charcuterie board crowd or the cocktail party host who wants something genuinely interesting on the table, this is a proper answer.
It’s also an award-winning one. Craize took home the 2026 sofi Gold Award in the Cracker and Crispbreads category for its Toasted Corn Snacks Everything Flavor, one of the food industry’s most respected honors from the Specialty Food Association.
Dorot Gardens: The Smartest Thing in Your Freezer
If you’ve ever stood over a cutting board at 7pm on a Tuesday, mincing garlic with the quiet fury of someone who just wants to eat dinner, Dorot Gardens was made for you.
The brand has built its category leadership on a remarkably simple idea: flash-freeze fresh garlic and herbs into pre-portioned cubes, so home cooks always have the real thing on hand without any of the prep work. No peeling. No chopping. No measuring. Just Pop. Drop. Done.
At Expo West, Celebrity Chef George Duran ran live cooking demonstrations that turned a few of those small frozen cubes into something worth watching. The menu included Ginger Honey Whipped Cream Cheese Crostini, Pasta with Instant Dorot Gardens Pesto, and Crinkle French Fries with Dorot Gardens Garlic Aioli.
That garlic aioli, built on a cube of flash-frozen garlic that still carries the sharp, bright heat of freshly harvested bulbs, is the kind of condiment that quietly becomes a household staple.
The proprietary freezing process locks in essential nutrients and garden-fresh flavor while extending shelf life and cutting household food waste. For city apartment cooks, that last part matters. Fresh herb bundles from the farmers market are a beautiful idea until Wednesday, when they’re a soggy regret at the back of the fridge. Dorot solves that problem year-round, which is exactly why it has maintained its category-leader position with ingredient-conscious shoppers.
Wonder Juice: Organic Wellness Without the Guilt Trip
The cold-pressed juice space is crowded. What separates Wonder Juice is rigor. Every variety is made with 100% organic, non-GMO, Fair-Trade certified ingredients, never any added water or sugar, and packaged in 100% recyclable glass bottles.
At Expo West, the brand introduced two new Wonder Green varieties: Clean Green and Veg8 & Cayenne.
Veg8 & Cayenne carries that slow, building warmth that starts mild and finishes with just enough heat to remind you something functional is happening, without the aggressive burn that makes you question your life choices.
The new blends join an existing lineup that spans the Wonder Beet, Wonder Melon, and Wonder Lemon lines, 11 varieties in total designed for daily wellness that actually fits into real life.
According to research from the Specialty Food Association, functional beverages are among the fastest-growing segments in natural foods retail, and the demand is being driven by consumers who want their drinks to do something. Wonder Juice is answering that call with a portfolio built around hydration, immunity, digestion, and sustained energy.
“Expo West is an ideal platform to showcase how Kayco Beyond continues to evolve alongside today’s consumer, offering innovative, globally inspired products that deliver on clean ingredients, convenience, and functionality,” said Michele Abo, General Manager of Kayco Beyond.
“From Craize’s bold approach to better snacking, to Dorot Gardens’ effortless flavor solutions, and Wonder Juice’s organic functional beverages, each brand brings meaningful differentiation that helps retailers meet growing demand across multiple better-for-you categories.”
That differentiation is the throughline across all three brands. These aren’t trend-chasing products. They’re solving specific, daily frustrations for people who care about what they eat and don’t want to be punished for it.
FAQ
Q: Where can I buy Craize, Dorot Gardens, and Wonder Juice? All three brands are part of the Kayco Beyond portfolio, available in over 14,000 retail locations across the United States. Check each brand’s website for a store locator or look for them in the natural and specialty foods section of your local grocery chain.
Q: What makes better-for-you snacks from Expo West 2026 different from regular health food? The distinction is in both formulation and flavor. Brands like Craize are built around clean-label standards (vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO, seed oil-free) without sacrificing the sensory experience that makes snacking worthwhile. The category is shifting away from deprivation and toward genuine pleasure with fewer compromises.
Q: Are Wonder Juice products actually cold-pressed? Yes. Wonder Juice uses cold-pressed production methods and never adds water or sugar to its organic, non-GMO, Fair-Trade certified blends. The 11-variety lineup comes in 100% recyclable glass bottles.
What to Try First
If you’re new to any of these brands, start with Craize in the Jalapeño Lime flavor alongside a glass of whatever you’re already drinking on Friday night. It’s a small, low-commitment way to understand immediately why this category is moving.
Then grab a box of Dorot Gardens frozen garlic cubes for your next pasta dinner and see how long it takes before you can’t imagine cooking without them.
The Wonder Juice Veg8 & Cayenne is a strong case for reconsidering your morning routine.
These are products worth finding.
