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HEALTH

Chocolate, painkillers and cheese: The emergency pack Switzerland wants you to have

Here’s a peak inside the government’s care package recommended for every Swiss household in the case of emergencies.

Published: 27 February 2020 17:47 CET
Updated: 8 March 2022 11:21 CET
Chocolate, painkillers and cheese: The emergency pack Switzerland wants you to have
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

There’s few things the Swiss love more than preparation. As The Local Switzerland have written about previously, Switzerland has a stockpile of everything – from coffee to opiates. 

READ: From coffee to nuclear fuel: What you need to know to understand Switzerland’s strategic stockpiles 

In the same spirit, the Swiss government has issued an indication of what the average Swiss household should have on hand in case of emergencies – particularly something like the coronavirus, or a military invasion. 

As the official government advice says: “We must be aware that the global economy is becoming increasingly interconnected. This means that complexity increases and the dependencies increase.”

“Switzerland has practically no natural resources. This makes it all the more dependent on uninterrupted access to resources such as oil or food.”

The advice includes a printable list with checkboxes to ensure you have everything you need. 

‘My Personal Emergency Kit’: The Swiss government’s official emergency ration pack.

The government does however encourage sensible shopping, saying that panic-buying is not necessary. Despite this bottled water and canned goods have been reported as scarce in some Swiss supermarkets.

So what does the government tell you to save for a rainy day – or a rainy three days to be precise? 

Drinking

Nine litres of water per person is recommended, with the Swiss government suggesting that each person will go through three litres per day for drinking and cooking.

Water for personal hygiene – essential during such an outbreak – is not included in the three-litre quota.  

Coffee and tea as well as UHT milk are recommended. 

Bottled water: Photo by Jonathan Chng on Unsplash

Food

Although there’s nothing like hunkering in with your friends and family for a nice fondue during the apocalypse, the Swiss government’s advice on food is comparatively conservative. 

They recommend stockpiling rice, pasta and ready-to-eat meals, as well as enough oil for cooking. 

They aren’t complete killjoys however. A good stock of chocolate is recommended, while the government also encourages cheese storage – although just how to do it isn’t exactly specified. 

Other less perishable items are also encouraged, like dried fruit and meat, canned food and the most Swiss of all food inventions: muesli. 

Everything else

Soap, toilet paper, batteries and a way of cooking food should the power cut out are also recommended. 

The government also encourages people to stock up on personal medications and painkillers. 

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LIVING IN SWITZERLAND

Lost and found: where to look for your ‘missing’ items in Switzerland

In Switzerland, like in other countries, people sometimes lose their belongings in various places. Many ultimately find their way to their rightful owner.

Published: 19 April 2024 12:10 CEST
Lost and found: where to look for your ‘missing’ items in Switzerland

Unlike socks that disappear in the wash, never to see the light of day again (which is a global, rather than just Swiss phenomenon), many lost items often do reappear. 

The bigger the item is, the more chance there is of it being found.

But even smaller objects like keys are often returned to their owners — it all depends on who finds them and to what lengths these people are willing to go to ensure that lost items are returned to their owners.

(Human nature being what is it is, you have more chances of being reunited your keys than with your jewellery or a wallet that still has all its contents inside).

But you may be surprised to learn that cases of exemplary honesty still exist.

One such example, in 2022, involved an envelope containing 20,000 francs found lying on a sidewalk by passersby and returned to the man who dropped it while getting into his car. 

What are some of the more unusual things people leave behind?

Each year, Uber Switzerland publishes a list of things that passengers forget in cars. 

This year, among purses, cell phones, laptop computers, umbrellas, and pieces of jewellery, drivers found in the back seats items including a purple wig, carnival mask, coffee machine, and a spatula for crêpes.

The items found on trains are even stranger. 

They include, according to the national railway company SBB, taxidermy animals, an authentic samurai sword, and a prosthetic leg (it’s not clear whether this was a spare or whether the passenger had to hop off the train).

Where should you look for the items you lose in Switzerland?

It depends on where you think, or know, you left your belongings.

Public transport

If it’s on the train, file a lost property report here. 

For the PostBus, it’s here. 

Additionally, public transport companies in your community have their own ‘lost and found’ offices, as do local police stations.

Airports

Zurich 
Geneva 
Basel 

Additionally, to maximise your chances of being reunited with your lost property, report it here.

Through this site, you can also check whether your lost item has been found and handed in at one of the offices.

If your lost item is found, must you pay a ‘finder’s fee’?

Yes, Swiss legislation says so.

No exact amounts are specified, but “the reward should be appropriate in relation to the find,” according to Moneyland consumer platform.

In principle, “a finder’s fee equal to 10 percent of the amount returned to the owner is considered an appropriate reward.” 

Also, if the process of finding out who the lost object belongs to and returning it to you generates extra expenses for the finder (such as train fare or other travel costs, for example), you have to reimburse these expenses in addition to the reward.

(By the same token, if you find and return someone else’s belongings, you can expect the same compensation).

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