In 1921, at the age of 19, Eugene Schiff immigrated to the United States from Hungary and entered the College of Pharmacy (now Wayne University) in Detroit, Mich., where he majored in pharmaceutics. Upon becoming a pharmacist, Schiff opened a drug store in Detroit, but soon realized his real interest was in foods with special health features. In the late 1930s, Schiff pioneered the use of whey for human consumption and formed Schiff Bio-Foods, a whey packaging company. He began selling packaged whey at his own drug store and to a few other local drug stores. A year later, he gave up his store and decided to focus on the manufacturing and packaging of health foods. Realizing that health food stores were selling synthetic vitamins rather than supplements made from natural products, Schiff began to study and experiment with whole foods such as brown rice, brewer’s yeast, wheat germ and liver. He found that these foods were naturally rich in vitamins and minerals. Schiff began to develop vitamins and minerals that best utilized and enhanced their natural properties. One of Schiff’s major breakthroughs was finding that rose hips provided a more concentrated source of vitamin C than orange juice. Schiff was the first to introduce this vitamin C source to America. Schiff also was the leader in producing the first natural source multi-vitamin, Schiff’s V-Complette. In 1949 Schiff moved his business to Jersey City, N.J. By 1954 business was booming and Schiff built a manufacturing plant and laboratory in South Hackensack, N.J. This building was a model for quality control and further helped to establish the Schiff brand as a trustworthy source of natural ingredients. In 1962 Schiff built a new 30,000-square-foot plant in Moonachie, N.J. By 1969, the Moonachie plant had doubled in size. In 1989 Schiff was acquired by Weider Nutrition International and relocated to Salt Lake City in 1991.