Long-life food: what keeps for a long time and what an emergency supply looks like

Which foods keep for a long time

Foods that are dry, salted, sugared or sterilised keep longest. The Federal Office for National Economic Supply (BWL) names, for example, rice, pasta, oil, ready meals, salt, sugar, coffee, tea and dried fruit for the supply. Add tins of vegetables, fruit or pulses, hard cheese, chocolate and nuts.

“Keeps forever” does not quite exist

For some foods the law does not require a best-before date at all. According to the Swiss food information ordinance (LIV), these include table salt, solid sugar, vinegar, chewing gum, sweets made almost only of sugar, and drinks with 10 or more percent alcohol by volume. This only means that no date has to be printed. Stored damp or open, these foods can spoil too. Honey is not on the list: in Switzerland it needs a date.

The emergency supply: one week, 9 litres of water

The Swiss government recommends that every household keeps a supply for about one week, in case shops are closed or electricity and water fail. The BWL brochure “Kluger Rat – Notvorrat” (wise advice – emergency supply) lists:

• Water: at least 9 litres per person, that is one six-pack of 1.5-litre bottles. According to the BWL this is enough for drinking and cooking for three days.
• Ready to eat: tins of vegetables, fruit or pulses, meat or fish or a vegetarian alternative, hard cheese, sauces, sweet and salty snacks.
• For cooking: pasta, rice, muesli, ready-made soups, stock and ready meals.
• Also: a way to cook without electricity (such as a gas cooker with fuel), a torch, a battery radio, candles, cash in small notes, medicines and hygiene items.

Store what your household normally eats, plus a few things that need no cooking. The BWL emergency supply calculator works out how much your household needs.

Store it well so nothing goes off

• Keep it cool, dry and away from light, as the BWL recommends.
• Eat from the supply regularly and replace what you use. New items go to the back, older ones to the front.
• Close opened packs well. Do not refreeze food once it has thawed.

Date passed: often still fine

“Mindestens haltbar bis” (best before) is a promise about quality, not a safety deadline. According to the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (BLV), food may even still be sold or passed on after this date, as long as it is safe and nobody is misled. The use-by date (“zu verbrauchen bis”) is different: the food must be used up by this date, and after it, it may no longer be handed out. foodwaste.ch lists how long foods are usually still fine after the best-before date if stored well:

• Pasta, rice, tea, coffee: up to 360 days
• Oils, fats, muesli: up to 120 days
• Frozen products: up to 90 days
• UHT milk, hard cheese: up to 30 days

Always check with your senses: look, smell, taste. If you are unsure, our app Haltbar oder nicht? helps. More about the two dates in the article Best before or use by.

Too much in the cupboard?

What you no longer need but is still good can be passed on in Bern, for example through a public fridge or foodsharing. Where this works is explained in Saving food in Bern. For leftovers there is the Reste-Küche.

Sources

• BWL: Kluger Rat – Notvorrat (German) and brochure, 17 February 2025 (PDF, German): one week, 9 litres of water, list, storage.
• Food information ordinance (LIV), annex 8 no. 1.4 (German): foods without a mandatory best-before date.
• BLV: food label (German) and information letter 2025/4.1 (PDF, German): handing out food after the best-before date.
• foodwaste.ch: best-before and use-by date (German): days after the date.

Read on 24 October 2026. Other sources give longer times for some foods; we give the cautious values.