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, shows ACNielsen's recent online survey of more than 21,100 consumers in 38 markets.

They 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.

Yet despite all the hype about the Atkins diet and the low-carb diet craze, consumers 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).

And almost 60 per cent of global consumers claim not to have heard of the low-GI diet, said ACNeilsen.

As expected, 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.