Year: 2015

Matís staff wishes its customers and all Icelanders a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.

Matís' switchboard and reception will be closed on 24 and 31 December. The direct telephone number for the microbiology department is 858-5116.

Information on other employees' telephone numbers can be found on our website, www.matis.is.

As in recent years, Matís does not send out traditional Christmas cards, but only cards in electronic form. Instead, Matís sponsors SKB, a sponsoring association for children with cancer.

It is Matís' wish that the grant be put to good use and further support the excellent work that is already being done at SKB.

Further information can be found on SKB's website, www.skb.is.

Matís and the Fisheries Research Institute before that have been partners in teaching at the United Nations University's School of Fisheries, UNU-FTP, from the beginning of the school's activities in 1998.

"The program emphasizes practical knowledge and experience, and students work closely with Icelandic instructors in project work and career presentations, which take up more than half of the six months that the program lasts. Each year, special studies are offered in 3-4 tracks, but the special studies last 4-5 months. Matís is in charge of teaching on a quality course, and there are between 5 and 10 students on that course. Every year, 15-20 Matís experts come for teaching and project instructions", says Heiða Pálmadóttir, subject manager at Matís.

It can be quite a puzzle to put together the program for the special course, "first there are lectures for 6 weeks and various people come and not just experts from Matís, but people from far and wide from the Icelandic fishing industry and related sectors such as transport and packaging. There are visits where companies welcome students, these are fun and informative visits for students and no less for accompanying persons. Fun discussions are created more during informal visits than when sitting in a lecture on the subject. I myself have found it fun and informative to go on these visits," says Heiða Pálmadóttir, who has been in charge of the classes for many years.

Benefits of the UNU-FTP school from the collaboration:

• Matís has a wide range of specialists with long experience in research and services in the fishing industry
• Matís' experts have good connections with the Icelandic fishing industry due to the small size of the country, from fishing to export and consumption.
• Matís' specialists collaborate in many ways with Icelandic universities and are connected to education in both undergraduate and graduate studies and form a bridge between industry and universities in Iceland.

Matís benefits from the collaboration:

• Matís contributes to development aid
• Matís' experts maintain links with the fishing industry and the fishing industry and preserve their basic knowledge in that field
• Creates new opportunities for increased projects in the international market

Students work on their final projects at Matís and this creates a connection with students who do not break up. Many return to further studies in Iceland, although some have entered doctoral and master's studies in recent years. By staying in Iceland for so long, a great and lasting connection is created between people. This has given rise to long-term projects and friendships.

"I have been in contact with students from SriLanka, he is setting up a quality system and sought advice on the implementation of individual measurements such as fish quality measurements and further explanations of methodology - this can be done via the Internet and takes little time for us to serve. Another example is a student in Kenya who has been in contact for fatty acid analysis, but she is particularly interested in increasing fish oil consumption, especially in young children and their mothers. Undeniably, one thinks of one's students when disaster strikes their nations, and one never knows what will happen to them, especially if the relationship is not stable. It was also a strong experience to receive students from North Korea and Cuba while the situation was at its worst," says Heiða.

"All of these are well-educated people in the beginning and extremely interested in learning and familiarizing themselves as best as possible with what we have to offer," says Heiða in conclusion.

Due to a coverage of skin products from the company Villimey that appeared in DV yesterday, 16 December 2016, Matís would like to state the following:

In a news item that Matís published on its website on 1 September. is an inaccurate wording, but part of the news can be understood in the sense that Matís has studied the effectiveness of skin care products on bodily functions.

Regarding the conduct of the research in question, it is correct that herbs in aqueous solution (plant extract) with herbs used in Villimey's skin products were tested in various skin cell tests and connective tissue tests. Such tests provide evidence of the activity of various substances in the skin and connective tissue cells. The relevant cell assays measured collagen levels and the levels of the enzymes elastase, metal proteinase 1, metal proteinase 2 and metal proteinase 9.

The tests showed that the herbs inhibited the synthesis of the enzymes. The tests also showed an increase in the amount of collagen in skin cells. There was also activity in healing files in cell epithelium with the so-called "Scratch wound healing" test (filament healing test) as well as antioxidant effect.

Matís regrets having sent a text that contained inaccurate wording and apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Further information is provided by Sveinn Margeirsson, CEO of Matís.

"We want it to be taken for granted that scientists work with fishermen on fisheries research and that fisheries stakeholders see scientists as valuable partners in policy-making," said Steve Mackinson of the UK's Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Center in a recent interview. Horizon, EU Research & Innovation Magazine but the occasion was e.g. The WhiteFish project in which Matís and the Association of Companies in the Fisheries Sector (SFS) participated on behalf of Iceland.

Matís, together with partners from Norway, Sweden, the UK and the Netherlands, was a participant in the research project WhiteFish, which was part of FP7, the 7th European Research Program, but the project has just been completed. The aim of the project was to develop and verify a method for calculating, analyzing individual batches (eg boxes, pallets or fishing trips), the environmental impact of cod and haddock products. The project will especially benefit small and medium-sized companies in the value chain of cod and haddock products, so that they can record the sustainability of products and processing methods. By being able to demonstrate the environmental impact of individual batches of production, the project's product will be used to give producers of cod and haddock products a competitive advantage in the market, which will presumably result in improved market access, higher prices and increased consumer goodwill.

The whole article is on Horizon website.

Related material

• Open workshop on environmental impact assessment in fish product value chains

At the handicraft slaughterhouse in Sailing camp in Landbrot employs a pioneer who asked Matís for a solution to his problems. Farmer Erlendur Björnsson had long had plans to set up a meat processing plant to process products from his own raw materials. For this he had thought of using a large shed by the town, which he had built up a few years ago, but was rather poorly used, mostly as storage for equipment and tools.

After some deliberation, it was agreed that the premises could be used as a smaller slaughterhouse, in addition to traditional meat processing. It can be said that it is not possible to get closer to the ideology "Straight from the farm".

A great deal of preparation went into it, which was based, among other things, on the design and organization of the slaughterhouse and the procedures required there, and also a lot of time was spent communicating with official regulators as this was the first slaughterhouse of its kind in the country. It was also necessary to convince licensors and regulators that even small slaughterhouses, with limited manpower, where work processes are based more on craftsmanship than automation, can meet all the requirements for slaughterhouses. It has now been two slaughter seasons since the opening of the slaughterhouse, at which time it has been confirmed that the house's products have become very desirable, as the quality is chronic, whether in terms of hygiene or taste and texture.

The next steps of Erlendur Björnsson and Þórunn Júlíusdóttir, the pioneers in Seglbúðir in collaboration with Matís, are to increase the operation of the building and the preparation of a large animal slaughterhouse, i.e. bulls and horse slaughter, already underway. This activity will strengthen the activities and create some jobs in the countryside in addition to those that were created at the opening of the sheep slaughterhouse.

For further information Óli Þór Hilmarsson at Matís.

This summer, the "Craft Reach" project was launched, which aims to support start-ups and current small producers in remote and sparsely populated areas. Matís is one of the seven partners in the project, which is funded for three years by the Northern Pheryphery and Arctic program. The project will be based on the success and experience of the "Économusée Craft International" project that laid the foundation for this project.

The main focus of the project is to help build and market craft businesses in remote and sparsely populated areas, and in the process encourage and inspire young people. Partners in the project are from Norway, Canada, the Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Iceland and Greenland.

Matís is currently looking for craft companies that are interested in becoming an ÉCONOMUSÉE and are connected to the "Craft Reach" network. For more information, visit the website, www.economusee.eu.

There are already three ÉCONOMUSÉEs in Iceland, they are Leir 7 in Stykkishólmur, Arfleifð in Djúpavogur and Gestastofa Sútarans in Sauðárkrókur.  

Craft companies interested in participating must meet the following conditions:

ÉCONOMUSÉE is a company that:

• Use traditional craft methods
• Produce traditional and / or new products with specific cultural connections
• Open its doors to the public to introduce the craft and the people behind it
• Has a building designed so that guests can show the processing and products
• Aims to become financially independent

Further information about the project or the current craft company can be found at www.economusee.eu.

If you think you meet the above criteria and are interested in being part of this exciting network, you can contact Gunnþórunn Einarsdóttir ( gunna@matis.is).

The deadline to apply is December 21.