Bamboo Bottle Company offers glass water bottles in a removable, protective bamboo casing.

RODALE NEWS, BOSTON—Walking through the aisles containing more than 1,000-plus vendors, one thing is increasingly clear at Natural Products Expo East: More and more exhibitors at the Boston trade show—some small mom-and-pop companies looking to be picked up by the likes of Whole Foods, some already-established powerhouses in the mainstream green world—are trading in ambiguous claims like "natural" for the meaningful certified-organic seal. This is good news for busy consumers because the certified-organic seal boasts a clear promise backed up by inspection: no synthetic pesticides chemicals, no GMO ingredients. The term "natural," on the other hand, means whatever a product's marketers want it to mean.

THE DETAILS: Natural Products Expo is meant to help grocery retailers find new and exciting earth-friendly products to fill their shelves in upcoming seasons. However, Rodale.com was allowed inside for a sneak peek to share with all of you. Inside, we found more than 75 countries represented, and products ranging from organic coffee and chocolate and sustainable baby teethers to organic pet food and sustainable cat litter.

And besides featuring green products, the Expo is shrinking its own carbon footprint. It's the East Coast's largest business-to-business trade show for this industry, but organizers run a quite paperless operation, cutting down on all those booklets and catalogs that people grab at shows but sometimes never even look at. And last year, Natural Products Expo East donated 40,000 pounds of excess food and products to the Greater Boston Food Bank.

WHAT IT MEANS: Rodale.com editors, along with some of our Organic Gardening colleagues, walked more than four miles of Expo show floor space last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, investigating the thousands of products included in the show. We've got lots to share with you this week. To start, here are three products we especially liked:

Theo Chocolate, a new organic, fair-trade chocolate company based in the United States, entertained our taste buds with its eclectic flavors. Sure, the company offers traditional flavors, but we really liked the "Fantasy Flavors," including coconut-curry milk chocolate, and fig, fennel, and almond. Chocoholic or not, you've never tasted anything like it!