NSF was founded as the National Sanitation Foundation in 1944 to standardize sanitation and food safety at a time when the United States had no national sanitation standards. The three founders of NSF; Walter Snyder, Henry Vaughn, and Nathan Sinai, were two professors and a health department official from nearby Toledo, Ohio. These three men sought to develop standards for sanitation by reaching a consensus of the parties that had a stake in the outcome, namely the public, the business community, and government agencies. By involving all three, each could feel invested in the process and would work to achieve a common goal.

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