The Asia Sentinel reports on a Joongang Daily article saying that the Korean government wants to establish standards to rate commercially produced kimchi. The standard would be a five point scale to rate its spiciness as well as rating its level of ripeness (non-fermented, fermented, and over-fermented).

So maybe you’ll be able to know the heat and the stink before opening your package of kimchi.

The Asia Sentinel article also has some interesting history on the industrialization of kimchi.