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As hundreds of exhibitors descended upon the Meadowlands Exposition Center this week for Kosherfest 2009, there were new varieties of mouth-watering food for everyone -- even for infants.

At the 21st annual kosher food, beverage, and wine show in Secaucus on Tuesday and Wednesday, Nature's Select displayed its "Petite Select" line of glatt kosher frozen organic baby foods, including beef barley bowl, mango jambo, arroz con pollo (chicken with rice in Spanish), and petite sheperd's pie.

"If a mother wants to feed their child chicken or meat, they [usually] have to make it at home," said Ronit Cohen Bentolila, managing director of Petite Select, who in the dual role of chef and mom tested the flavors on her three daughters.

Everything was kosher at this show, including the aluminum foil. The Reynolds Company proudly flashed its Orthodox Union "OU" kosher symbol at its booth for products like its foil, plastic wrap, and the biblical-sounding parchment paper, a siliconized paper used for baking in the oven up to 420 degrees.

Since Reynolds products are certified kosher, "that way they know that everything it's made from is clean," sales representative Mitch Cohen said.

Companies who specialize in Passover products were out to show their food tasted just like bread, despite the use of different ingredients in accordance with the laws of the holiday. Bagel Bites USA offered bread, pizza, hamburger rolls, and cakes -- all made of potato starch.

"It's 25 years of experience," Jay Lieberman, who markets Bagel Bites' products, said of how they taste so similar to chometz. "Basically all we did was take out the flour, and all the other ingredients that were kosher for Passover, we used."

Asked how his Passover pastries can simulate the real thing, Mendy Cinner of Mendy's Passover Bakery said he had to keep that a secret.

"Once I give it out, I have to kill you," Cinner said.

Mendy's has a logo that's eerily similar to the famous Mendy's delicatessen chain in New York City, but Cinner claimed that the deli owner was the copycat.

"I'm older than him," he said.

Dieting may not be the first thing that Kosherfest brings to mind, but that's exactly what a number of exhibitors with health-conscious products were trying to promote. As Patrice N. Le Maire, representing the Halter line of Swiss sugar free candies, put it: "80 percent of people should be on a diet."

"Today, 20 percent of people, if they are not diabetics, they are quasi-diabetics," he said.

Lakewood-based Classy Cakes showcased its new sugar free muffins and cheesecake. Sugar free muffins have a reputation for being dry when they are made of whole wheat, but Classy Cakes' muffins managed to achieve an optimum level of moistness despite being 100-percent whole wheat, sales representative Asher Elbaz said. The cheesecake uses xylitol and farmer cheese, healthier alternatives to the Splenda and cream cheese found in other sugar free cheesecakes, he said.

"Usually anything that's too healthy, people don't like," Elbaz said.

Oxygen Imports, whose Mixed Berry Blast won the "Best New Jam, Preserve, or Spread" award at Kosherfest, takes a three-pronged approach to healthy food, explained Harold Wiener, vice president of sales and marketing: selling to the community in general, selling to health-conscious consumers, and selling to vegetarians. The secret ingredient is often honey, which Oxygen combines with halva and a variety of other foods, since honey is "very interesting on the palette," Wiener said.

Headquartered in Secaucus, The Manischewitz Company didn't have to travel too far to get to Kosherfest. This year, the company has launched an all natural, ready-to-serve broth in three flavors, is holding the Man-O-Manischewitz! Cook Off in New York City in March, and is sponsoring Jewish American Heritage Month in May.

The new broth, available in chicken, beef, and reduced sodium chicken, is a much quicker option than Manischewitz's previous condensed broth, which required putting in water first, brand manager Kenneth Janso said.

Asian Star displayed shrimp, scallop, and lobster tail -- products that kosher consumers aren't used to seeing. This line of imitation shellfish is made of sea bream, real fish, rather than soy, said Robert Lau, vice president of sales.

"We are making fish into something that looks like something else, that tastes like something else," Lau said.

Despite the fact that many religious Jews are deterred from buying imitation shellfish because it looks authentic, the quality taste of Asian Star's products have made them successful in Jewish communities, Lau said.

While soy isn't the ingredient of choice for Asian Star, it's the new spin on traditional Syrian Jewish appetizers like kibbeh, lahamagin, and cigars for Benicor USA, enabling Sephardic families to take their favorite foods unrefrigerated on vacation, in addition to giving vegetarian Sephardim a chance to eat like their meat-loving counterparts.

Still, the appetizers, which never previously had soy versions, are "not only for Syrian families, it's really different food and everyone can try and taste it," Benicor chef Esther Salmon said.

Giving a different look to your typical packaged frozen food, the Milmar Food Group laid out a spread of its mini hot dogs and hamburgers -- nested comfortably in mini hot dog and hamburger buns, which come in the package.

"It's what they call a mini-slider," Dov Peiker, a vice president for Milmar, said of the hamburgers.

SHF Industries, which acquired the infamous Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant (formerly of the Chabad-Lubavitch Rubashkin family) in Postville, Iowa on Aug. 6, was out in full force with chicken wings and mini hot dogs among other meats from its new line of products, Agri Star Beef & Poultry.

With the Postville plant finally running again after the May 2008 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid, which uncovered a slew of labor violations, Agri Star has the task of changing people's perceptions about the ethics of the business, SHF President Daniel Hirsch said. The company has goals of increasing poultry production by 20-30 percent and deli production by 50 percent over the next few months, he said.

"People are really looking for us to get back into the market," Hirsch said.