Swiss rule coffee not vital for human survival, back removing it from national emergency stockpile
The Swiss, staunchly neutral on most issues, will likely stir up enemies worldwide – at least among commuters – after the Federal Council ruled Wednesday that coffee is not vital for human survival and should be removed from the nation's required emergency stockpile.
The finding emerged after the Federal Office for National Economic Supply considered a proposed amendment to the "Ordinance on the Compulsory Storage of Foodstuff and Animal Feed."
"It is intended to cancel the storage obligation for coffee," the council said in a news release.
The emergency reserves system was set up between World War I and World War II as Switzerland braced for shortages of vital goods in case of war, natural disaster or epidemics.
The council, in a statement, said the NES "came to the conclusion that coffee is not essential for life according to today's criteria."
Perhaps pressing its luck, the council continued: "That is, coffee contains almost no calories and therefore does not make any contribution to food security from a nutritional point of view."
The council notes in the full report that that while its inclusion on the list has strong historical "psychological reasons," it is "no longer justified."
If the proposal survives a period of public comment, importers will no longer have to stockpile coffee after 2022.
Nestle, which makes instant coffee Nescafe, and 14 other importers, roasters and retailers are required by Swiss law to store bags of raw coffee, Reuters reports. Other stockpiles are for sugar, rice, edible oils and animal feed.
The mandatory coffee reserves amount to about 16,865 tons, or enough to cover three months of domestic coffee drinking.
According to the World Atlas, the average Swiss coffee drinker has up to five cups a day, or about 18 pounds a year, while the average U.S. coffee drinker downs about 9 pounds annually.