Most Trusted Pet Care Products: Hartz
It all started with singing canaries. In 1926, a near-penniless Hartz founder Max Stern left Germany for America. A friend who owed Stern a modest sum could pay back the loan only with a bounty of canaries—5,000, to be exact. So Stern immigrated with them and sold them to the John Wannamaker Department Store on New York City’s Astor Place. For years, Stern traveled back and forth to Germany to import canaries, selling them at such stores as R.H. Macy, Sears Roebuck, and F.W. Woolworth. In 1932, he expanded into packaged bird food and then into products for cats, dogs, and other pets. By 1980 Hartz products were sold in more than 40,000 locations across America and Canada.
Most Trusted Headache/Pain Reliever: Tylenol
Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, was discovered in Europe in the late 1800s, when French doctors found that a similar drug treated pain and fever in a patient with intestinal parasites. But it would take nearly half a century for the medication to be widely available in America. A father-and-son company, McNeil, launched the first Tylenol product in 1955—TYLENOL Elixir for Children, available only by prescription. It was approved for over-the-counter sales in 1960. Among the company’s important innovations: safety-sealed, tamper-resistant packaging (1982); Gelcaps, an easier-to-swallow new dosing form (1988); and Rapid Release Gels, designed with holes for faster effects (2005).
Most Trusted Herbal & Vitamin Supplements: Nature Made
Launched in 1972, Nature Made today fills 120 million bottles with its products each year. In 2002, it became the first dietary supplement to enter the verification process from the United States Pharmacopeia, a nonprofit that sets federally recognized standards for medicines, supplements, and foods. Nearly 70 Nature Made products are USP verified.
