Author: admin

All this week, three Matís employees will be traveling around the country. The opportunities are certainly there in the countryside in terms of food and biochemical production.

The employees will meet small and large parties in food production and will be at their fingertips and give advice regarding the various issues related to food production, especially small food production.

Draft agenda:

• Monday 13 May - Skagafjörður, Siglufjörður, Ólafsfjörður and Akureyri
• Tuesday 14 May - Akureyri, Svalbarðseyri, Laugar, Húsavík, Kópasker, Raufarhöfn
• Wednesday 15 May - Raufarhöfn
• Thursday 16 May - Egilsstaðir and other places in East Iceland / Eastfjords
• Friday 17 May - East Fjords

All those who are interested in food production are encouraged to contact these Matís employees.

• Haraldur Hallgrímsson, division manager
• Jón Trausti Kárason
• Sæmundur Elíasson

For further information Haraldur Hallgrímsson at 858-5054.

There is a vacancy for a secretary to work with a so-called "Resident Twinning Advisor (RTA)" in a foreign project.

The project is called "Institutional and laboratory capacity building to ensure food safety" and will last for 12 months. The seat will be at Matís ohf. In Reykjavík and the work will mainly consist of assisting RTA in coordinating the visits of German experts to Matís and MAST (Matvælastofnun). Writing skills and good skills in German, Icelandic and English are required. This is a full time job.

Main projects:

• Assist RTA in the administration and organization of the project as a whole
• Organize trips of RTA and German experts
• Language assistance and translations by RTA and German experts
• Organization of meetings and conferences
• Summary of data and report writing
• Translations (Icelandic / English, English / Icelandic)

Further information:

http://www.eurojobs.com

Dr. Gregory L. Yep, Senior Vice President of PepsiCo (Senior Vice President, PepsiCo R&D), will give a lecture at Matís' breakfast meeting at Hilton on June 4.

See more advertisement from Matís. Take the morning off June 4th!

This is an open meeting and admission is free!

More later than information provides Steinar B. Aðalbjörnsson, marketing director of Matís

On the 15th of May, Ásta María Einarsdóttir, master's student in food science and Sigrún Mjöll Halldórsdóttir, doctoral student in food science, will give lectures on research and development of food substances from food.

Kl. 15:00 - 15:30
Ásta María Einarsdóttir gives a talk on Fucoidan from brown algae 

Kl. 15: 30-16: 00
Sigrún Mjöll Halldórsdóttir gives a talk on the biomedical use of cod trypsin 

Ásta María will discuss the topic fucoidan which is a polysaccharide from the cell walls of brown algae that has shown diverse bioactivity in recent studies. The lecture will review the results of a new review article where the main research on the bioactivity of fucoidan is presented (Vo TS and Kim SK (2013). "Fucoidans as a natural bioactive ingredient for functional foods." Journal of Functional Foods 5 (1): 16-27). The effects of fucoidan on blood clotting factors, the effects of fucoidan on viruses, tumors and inflammation as well as the antioxidant activity of fucoidan will be discussed.

Sigrún Mjöll talks about cod trypsin and its uses in biomedicine. The lecture will discuss the cod enzymes based on a new review article (Gudmundsdottir A, Hilmarsson H and Stefansson B (2013). "Review Article - Potential Use of Atlantic Cod Trypsin in Biomedicine".  BioMed Research International, published online http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/749078). Studies show that cod trypsin has a variety of effects, for example against various viruses, skin problems and wounds. Cod trypsin is isolated from by-products in fish processing and its processing promotes the full utilization of cod. There are already various products on the market that contain cod enzymes under the name Penzyme®. 

The lectures will be held in Matís' premises at Vínlandsleið 12, on the top floor of hall 311 (Esja) from 3 pm to 4 pm, on Wednesday 15 May (fuciodan at 3 pm and cod trypsin at 3:30 pm).

Everyone welcome!

Due to an article published in Morgunblaðið, where the owner of Kost discusses food control in Iceland, Matís wants to state the following:

Food control in Iceland is in the hands of the Municipal Health Inspectorate (HES). Supervision and coordination of these inspections is in the hands of the Food Administration (www.mast.is).

Matís (www.matis.is) is a powerful knowledge company that engages in diverse research, service and innovation in the food industry. Matís has no role in food control other than that the company can, in an independent manner, examine food samples for regulators, institutions, companies and individuals. For example, Matís can investigate whether foods contain contaminants or other undesirable substances, whether foods contain the substances that are said to be present in them and whether there is any special activity (bioactivity) in food products or ingredients.

But Jón Gerald is always welcome to do business with Matís and we have already invited him to collaborate on measurements of fruit and vegetables that Kostur imports from the United States.

Jón Gerald has already corrected the confusion, but it is not out of the question to shed further light on Matís' operations and how it is not related to food control in Iceland.

For further information Steinar B. Aðalbjörnsson, marketing director of Matís

Matís, who is in charge of parental analysis of horses, has now started DNA analysis of the DMRT3 gene, the so-called pacemaker gene. A great deal of discussion arose among horsemen at the end of 2012 when news arrived that genes had been found in horses that controlled their pace.

The researchers, Lisa Andersson at Capilet Genetics AB, etc. who discovered this gene believe that this is a very remarkable encounter that can improve the breeding work of the Icelandic horse.

Horses can have one of three genotypes. One genotype is when horses are homozygous for this gene (AA) and such horses have a pace. If two homogeneous horses with a good pace are paired together, they give off homogeneous all-round horses (AA). Other genetic factors and environmental influences can, however, affect how good that offspring will be as a universal horse. The other genotype produces hybrid (CA) horses and such horses are usually four-gaited horses, but if they are mated with a homozygous or hybrid individual, they can produce universal offspring in 50% or 25% cases. The third genotype is homozygous without the pacemaker (CC) and horses with this genotype are in most cases slow-moving horses. If such horses are paired with a homozygous individual with a pace or a heterosexual individual, the offspring will either be all-round horses with tölt or pure all-round horses.

By DNA identifying horses for this gene, breeders can choose the breeding stock according to whether they are universal horses (homozygous), all-round horses with tölt (hereditary) or pure all-round horses.

More information on DNA analysis for the pacemaker gene can be obtained by sending an email to alexandram@matis.is

Ásbjörn Jónsson, a food scientist at Matís, went on one fishing trip with the most advanced line fishing vessel in the world, where he had a hand in producing some exciting canned goods from excellent fresh ingredients.

In Norway, there is the longline fishing vessel "Fröyanes", where the aim is to utilize all the raw material that comes in front of the deck. There is a small canning factory on board and the goal is to use it for canning liver, eggs, gills, skateboards and gels.

Fröyanes is one of the most advanced line fishing vessels in the world, and it is therefore a great incentive for Matís' experts to take part in product development on board this vessel.

Ásbjörn's journey was very well described Fish news on 11 April. (© Photo by Fröyanes: www.fiskifrettir.is).

The news in Sunnmörsposten on Saturday 23 March. (open No. 10).