Nuremberg (Germany)/Kolkata, March 30 (IANS): People in India and Ukraine spend just over 13 hours a week cooking, compared to the international average of less than six and a half hours each week, a study revealed on Monday.

They are followed by South Africa, where its citizens, on an average spend nine and a half hours on culinary activities, Indonesia where people spend more than eight hours a week and Italy seven hours a week.

The research, conducted by Germany-based market researcher GfK, said the countries where people spent the least amount of time cooking each week were Brazil (slightly more than five hours), Turkey (slightly less than five hours) and South Korea (less than four hours), possibly due to the popularity of their inexpensive street food carts.

The research was conducted by interviewing over 27,000 people aged 15 and above in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and the US.

The study further said globally 29 percent of people claim to have great knowledge and experience about food and cooking -- but this was again led by women at 34 percent, compared to just a quarter (25 percent) of men.

"Breaking this down into individual countries, South Africa and India top the list, with around half of people (50 and 48 percent, respectively) agreeing, or agreeing strongly, that this applies to them.

"Also in the top five are Turkey and Ukraine at 40 percent each and Indonesia at 38 percent," the study said.

It further revealed that women spend over seven and a half hours per week for preparing the dishes while men spend five hours a week.