The food on the employee’s table

In the novel The cheese dairy in Vehfreude by Jeremias Gotthelf from 1850, the farmers of a fictional Emmentaler community decide to build a large cheese dairy with the money that was actually intended for the construction of a school building – to overtake the villages in the area. From that moment on, the milk is no longer drunk, but cheese is made from it, and since that is not enough for the farmers, they dilute the milk with water.

The fraud, of course, comes to light and leads to further complications. The classic of Swiss literature was again a great success in 1958 when it was made into a film by director Franz Schnyder.

The story represents a number of important developments in food production in the 19th century: the replacement of cheese dairies in the mountains by dairies in the valley, the growing importance of cheese exports to the Swiss economy, and quality problems. Emmentaler became one of Switzerland’s most important export products in the last quarter of the 19th century. However, the quality problems in the food industry were not addressed until 1906 with a food law at the federal level.

From 1850, industrialization in Switzerland gained momentum – industrial workers flocked to the cities and centers. This also changed her daily life and an important part of this was nutrition. While in a rural culture much time is spent preparing food, this time melts away in the incipient industrial age. Not only men and women worked in the industrial halls, but also their children – nobody has time to cook anymore.

This industrial development was preceded by various revolutions in agriculture, such as the transition from three fields to continuous crop rotation. The introduction of year-round stables made it possible to produce manure and liquid manure as fertilizer. At the end of the 19th century, mechanization began, which in turn led to a leap in productivity.

Two other developments enabled and encouraged industrial change: the introduction of the potato in the 18th century and the advent of international trade. He brought coffee and industrially produced sugar into the country.

From about 1870 a real food and drink industry emerged. Swiss companies quickly made an international name here. Condensed milk was one of the first products to be produced industrially. The two main producers were the Anglo Swiss Condensed Milk Co and Nestthe two merged in 1905. In 1865 the company registered wander in Bern with a malt extract from which the ovaltine became.

In 1868, brothers Wallrad Ottmar and Philipp Emil Bernhard, who had emigrated from Germany, began producing canned food and were soon able to establish themselves as suppliers to the Swiss army. From her company later the Roco from. The story of Julius Maggi is also interesting: he was actually a miller, but lost his livelihood due to cheap grain imports and in this emergency started producing powdered soups and a seasoning that soon became known as Maggi herbs should determine.

Besides cheese, chocolate was Switzerland’s most successful export product: cocoa arrived in Switzerland early and was processed and refined in Tessin, for example, as early as the 18th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, the oldest chocolate factories in western Switzerland were established: Cailler 1819 in Vevey, Zuard 1826 in Serrieres, Favarger 1826 in Lausanne. The myth of Swiss chocolate is rooted in three inventions: in 1826 Philippe Suchard invented a machine to mix sugar and cocoa powder, in 1875 Daniel Peter mixed milk and chocolate to invent milk chocolate and finally Rudolf Lindt in Bern succeeded in 1879 to the conching process crucial refinement.

Chocolate was an export product in the 19th century – domestic success only came when the Swiss army bought chocolate for supplies during World War I, other European countries followed later.

Pasta became increasingly popular among factory workers: it was cheap and quick to prepare. As a result, pasta factories sprang up everywhere, even in cities that were only a few kilometers apart, as in the case of the pasta factory hotz in Wila and the factory of the brothers Weilenmann in Rikon. The triumph of the railways led to a concentration as early as the end of the 19th century, and from then on the Weilenmann brothers only produced in Winterthur, which was more conveniently located in terms of transport. The name later came from their company lost pasta.

Beer also established itself as a luxury food in the second half of the 19th century. Until then, wine or cider, often referred to simply as “Most” or “Suure Most”, were the main alcoholic beverages. However, the beer was mainly consumed in inns, bottled beer was a luxury for a long time. In 1850 there were already 150 breweries, in 1885 there were already 530.

Two developments were the cause of the growth: the discovery of Louis Pasteur made it possible to produce long-life beers and the invention of refrigeration machines solved the cooling problem and the cumbersome transport of ice, which often had to be extracted in the mountains and transported by horse. and cart to the breweries. Refrigerators only became popular in private households after World War II. Finally, the rapidly developing railroad helped distribute the coveted drink.

Commercial companies initially benefited from the achievements of the fledgling food industry – canned food was an expensive affair until the end of the 19th century. Food, however, dominated the budgets of working-class families, accounting for 62 percent of expenditure: most of the money was spent on buying bread and coffee or coffee substitutes such as chicory. Meat, milk and potatoes also played an important role.

The development of cheap powdered soups was also a social reform project: liquor was a staple food. As late as the 1930s, Winterthur’s industrial workers hurried to the inn early in the morning to drink a schnapps for 20 centimes.

Although the food industry has undergone great changes from its inception to the present day, unlike for example the machinery and textile industry, it has managed to hold its own in many areas worldwide, especially in the chocolate sector. Cheese still plays a role in export. That Switzerland is one of the world’s largest coffee exporters is another story and is partly due to the triumph of Nest Nespresso system established.