Company History
Quick Facts:
- Walter Florin founded Micro Essential Laboratory in 1934, starting with hand-made pH paper
- The company developed the pHydrion® line of pH strips, sanitizer test papers and buffer standards
- Micro Essential partnered with Eli Lilly to help create Test Tape, the standard glucose test for diabetics for over 30 years
- The company has operated from Brooklyn, New York since 1954
- Now led by second generation owners Mark and Joel Florin, Micro Essential serves healthcare, food service, education and industrial markets worldwide
How It All Started
Walter Florin founded Micro Essential Laboratory in 1934, but the story starts a bit earlier than that. As a member of his high school's microscope club, Walter began experimenting with dyes and chemicals to see how they reacted to different pH levels. He noticed something the market was missing: a real, standardized way to test pH.
So he built one. Working out of his family's pharmacy, Walter hand made his first batch of pH paper. What started as a curiosity turned into a business fast enough that he gave it a name: Micro Essential Laboratory, Inc.
Building the Hydrion and pHydrion Lines
As Walter's expertise with dyes grew, so did his product line. He began testing pH applications across different industries, which eventually led to the pHydrion® line of pH strips, sanitizer test papers, pH buffer standards and a range of specialty test papers. These products didn't just sell well, they set the bar. Quality, accuracy and reliability became the standard people expected from Micro Essential.
The Eli Lilly Partnership
One of the clearest signs of the company's early expertise came through a partnership with Eli Lilly and Company. Together, they developed a product called Test Tape, manufactured under the Hydrion® Test Products name. For more than 30 years, Test Tape was the go to method diabetics used to measure glucose in urine, a real world example of how far test paper technology had come since Walter's first hand-made batch.
Moving to Brooklyn
By 1954, the business had outgrown its original space. Micro Essential Laboratory relocated to its current home in Brooklyn, New York, a move that gave the growing company the room it needed to keep expanding.
A Family Business, Then and Now
Walter built this company on a simple set of values: make the highest quality products, take care of customers, and take care of the people who work here. Those values didn't leave when Walter did. Today, Micro Essential Laboratory is owned and run by his sons, Mark and Joel Florin, who've carried that same vision forward for the next generation.
Where We Are Today
What began as one teenager's curiosity about dyes is now a company supplying pH test papers, sanitizer test papers and pH buffer standards to a global market. Our products reach educational, industrial, medical and everyday consumer testing needs. We're also the leading manufacturer of sanitizer test papers used throughout the food service industry, a category Walter could hardly have imagined when he was mixing dyes in a high school lab.
Industry Use Cases Rooted in Our History
- Diabetes and glucose testing
Our early work with Eli Lilly on Test Tape helped establish test paper as a trusted tool in patient self monitoring, a legacy that carries into our healthcare product line today.
- Food service sanitizing
Decades of pH and chemical testing expertise turned into a full line of sanitizer test kits now used across restaurants, cafeterias and food processing facilities nationwide.
- Laboratory and educational testing
From Walter's original hand-made pH paper to today's precision buffer standards, our products remain a staple in university, commercial and research labs.
Explore our full industry solutions to see how these decades of experience translate into the products you use today.