A recent online survey of more than 21,100 consumers in 38 markets it was seen that one in two Europeans regularly check food packaging and labeling for fat content, while two in five people regularly check for calorie and sugar content.
The consumers were asked how much they understood food labeling, when they would check nutritional information and labeling and what they check for as they do their grocery shopping.It was seen that in spite of all the hype about the Atkins diet and the low-carb diet craze, consumers still appear to be more interested in screening out other ingredients first, with a global average of just 28 per cent claiming to check for the carbohydrate count on labels. Carbs were of most interest to the Latin Americans (44 per cent) and North Americans (37 per cent) and of lowest priority to the Asians (28 per cent) and Europeans (24 per cent).
Awareness of the GI diet was found to be much higher in the AsiaPacific region compared with other countries confirming that a major part of the world’s consumers are still more interested in fat, calories and sugar than carbohydrate levels. Australians were the most GI-savvy: 82 per cent know about this diet, followed by 80 per cent of Koreans and 76 per cent of people living in New Zealand.
