Rahway's Oxygen Imports was the winner of the best jam, preserve or spread in Kosherfest 2009's new products competition, which took place two weeks before the annual two-day celebration of kosher food, wine and spirits on Oct. 27 and 28 at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, where the awards were conferred.

 Mixed Berry Blast, Oxygen's fruit preserve, took the prize in its category, one of 18 types of new kosher products that were selected out of hundreds of entries sampled by a panel of kosher food professionals.

Co-owner Haidi Biala's company imports and markets gourmet, natural, organic and sugar-free foods, including dressings and marinades, natural and organic tahini, organic honey from Jerusalem, date honey, spreads and confitures with sesame, date, carob, chocolate, halvah, nuts and fruit, as well as exotic natural juices and nectars, spices, Turkish coffees and connoisseur teas, and produces its own all-natural preserves and sauces.

Biala said Oxygen's new line of Silan date products also were well-received, as Kosherfest attendees sampled the different flavors and styles available: date syrup, All Natural Silan Stir Fry Sauce, Smoky Silan Barbeque Marinade and All Natural Silan South Asian Marinade. Her company, she said, is emblematic of the changing direction of the kosher marketplace, in which "kosher products are no
longer laced with preservatives or additives and are no longer considered by the general public to be of inferior quality.'

Kosherfest 2009 attracted nearly 7,000 food industry professionals from all over the world to the more than 300 purveyors exhibiting both traditional kosher foods such as matzoh and delicatessen, and also products as diverse as pecan
pie, Asian noodles, mozzarella sticks, wasabi peanuts and chocolate fountains. Special events and seminars within the exhibition addressed such issues as marketing kosher to a broader audience.

"The age of the average kosher shopper has changed dramatically in the past five years,'' said co-producer of the event Menachem Lubinsky, president of Lubicom Marketing Consulting, at Kosherfest's opening session. "Nearly 45 percent of all
kosher consumers in 2009 are below the age of 45, an increase from about 35 percent just five years ago,'' and the demand for a broader mix of products was reflected in the exhibitors' wares this year.

Central Jersey stores at which Oxygen Imports products may be purchased include Middlesex Farmers Market, 80 Fulton St., Edison; East Brunswick Produce, 233 Route 18, East Brunswick, and Glatt 27,1109 Raritan Ave., Highland Park. To order direct from Oxygen or find other stores, visit www.oxygenimports.com, e-mail oxygen@oxygenimports.com or call 800-660-4699.

Lois Heyman: 908-512-2731; lheyman@MyCentralJersey.com. Visit The Food Chain blog at http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/foodchain.