"Selecting the Nexty Awards finalists is an annual highlight at the New Hope Network office, but don’t be fooled: It is as challenging as it is fun. During preliminary judging, each product is carefully prepared, sampled and reviewed by our editorial and standards teams and the finalists are selected," the organization says.

"For the final round of judging, we bring together a diverse panel of natural products experts from fields including retail, finance, data insights, marketing, journalism, nonprofit, and academia. Each judge provides their unique perspective as the finalist products are sampled and discussed. The judges, including our highly esteemed guest judges, choose one winner per category along with a few Editor's Choice Award recipients," it finishes.

Snack, bakery, and confectionery finalists include:

• Functional Food or Beverage: Crisp Power Cheddar Protein Pretzel, Gem Citrus Ginger Daily Bite
• Meat or Animal-based Product: Singing Pastures Juicy Pineapple Pork Craft Meat Sticks
• Special Diet: Papa Mountain Sweet Potato & Herb Bread Rolls
• Savory or Salty Snack: Purplesful Snacking Grass-Fed Butter Purple Popcorn, First Cut Sea Salt Beef Tallow Potato Chips, StarWalker Organic Farms Smokehouse Blend Meat Sticks, Mamame Hot Chili Tempeh Chips, Hippie Snacks Dill Pickle Crunchers, Keya's Snacks Bombay Spice Potato Chips
• Pantry Staples: Bob's Red Mill Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake Mix
• Prepared Frozen Product: Deep Indian Kitchen Veggie Masala Momo Dumplings
• Vegan Product: Crafty Counter WunderEggs Protein Bun, Egg, and Cheese; Lexington Bakes Peanut Butter Chip Protein Cookies; 7th Heaven Dubai Style Pistachio and Kadayif Oat Milk Chocolate; Pulmuone Plantspired Cilantro Garlic Potstickers; Mila Savory Mushroom Bao Buns
• Sweet Snacks and Desserts: Like Air x Copper Cow Vietnamese Coffee Puffcorn, Once Again Chocolate & Peanut Butter Graham Sandwich, Magic Chocolate Slated Candied Hazelnut Truffle Layer Bar, Issei Mochi Gummies Dark Chocolate Covered Cherry Mochi Gummies, YumEarth Organic Freeze Dried Giggles
• Planet-forward Product: Roaring Fork Mill Shortbread Cookies, Millways Spearmint Plastic Free Gum, Seven Sundays Bright Side Triple Berry Granola, Ulu Foods Chia & Sea Salt Breadfruit Bites
• Certified Regenerative Product: Simple Mils Cinnamon Swirl Muffin & Cake Oat Flour Baking Mix
• Frozen Dessert: The London Dough Company (Doughlicious) Chocolate Chip Baked Cookie Dough Skillet
• Gluten-free Product: Oggi Foods Napoletana Gluten-Free Pizza Crust, Pacha Sourdough Buckwheat Tortillas, Joey Nordic Kitchen Organic Nordic Seed Crisps, Please & Thank You Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• Product Design & Storytelling: Olyra Blueberry Fig Bars
• Kids' Product: Actual Veggies Sweet Potato Veggie Nuggets
• Breads and Bakery: Truly Indian Tikka Masala Vegan Naan

The winners will be announced at Expo West at the Nexty Awards Ceremony on March 5.

Related: Doughlicious launches Cookies & Cream Skillet Cookie