It hasn’t even hit our shores yet, but the avian flu is proving to be good news for one U.S. company. The Freemont Co., which makes Frank’s sauerkraut, says sales of Frank’s were up 850 percent last week alone, following a report from Seoul National University that eating kimchi, a Korean cabbage dish, can help prevent avian flu. “People are stocking up on sauerkraut like bottled water before a hurricane hits,” Chris Smith, vp of marketing for Frank’s, says in the press release, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. Not being a physician, I can’t attest to sauerkraut’s effectiveness in preventing avian flu, but one should at least be apprised of its other side effects before stocking up.

—Posted by Aaron Baar