The respondents were asked to identify QD techniques that were initiated in the past and currently used in their companies. Table 5 and Fig. 10 illustrate the status of QD methods in European food SMEs. More than 80% of the responding companies never used any QD methods. FMEA was used by 11% of the responding companies and 5% have taken initiatives with respect to DOE and QFD. DOE and QFD is used in medium-sized companies specifically in the chocolate and confectionery sector. Three meat companies were using FMEA as a method for QD. The reason might be the complicated nature of these methods, as they require specialized skills, resources and time which is a typical characteristics of SMEs.