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As most people know, there has been a lot of discussion about salt in recent days. Everyone has their own opinion on the so-called "salt issue", but everyone agrees on the importance of healthy, good and harmless food as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Matís wants to put his weight on the scales of a good and informed discussion. In order to emphasize the importance of reliable information and professional work methods in discussions on difficult issues such as these and in light of Matís' role regarding the public health of Icelanders, it should be noted that the company has equipment to measure salt for companies and individuals.

Matís has great ambitions in food research, but it is worth mentioning that Matís runs the largest food laboratory in the country. At Matís, the accreditation of measurement methods is paramount and the company has ambitious plans for even further development of accredited measurement methods. Matís has long aimed at further development of equipment and the company is considering various ways of financing important equipment, for the benefit of all Icelanders.

For further information Helga Gunnlaugsdóttir, director of chemical research and risk assessment at Matís

Traceability and the environmental impact of fish products are the backbone of the WhiteFish project, which Matís is working on together with parties in Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

The project aims to develop methods for assessing the environmental impact of fishery products, from fishing to the consumer. The environmental impact assessment is based on an LCA life cycle analysis, which means that the analysis covers the entire value chain. Factors such as the state of the fish stocks, the effects of fishing methods, energy consumption during processing and transport, waste in the process, destruction or recycling of packaging, etc. are therefore taken into account.

"Based on the experience gained regarding the eco-labeling of marine products, information such as this is most important for wholesalers and retailers of the product. Few consumers make an effort to immerse themselves in these aspects, but they trust that the person who sells them seafood is offering a product that has an acceptable environmental impact. Large retail chains have their own criteria in this regard, and with the WhiteFish project we are taking a step even further than is done with "traditional" eco-labels and calculating the environmental impact for the entire value chain of the products ", says Jónas Rúnar Viðarsson, Matís's specialist manager.

"In recent months, wild fish from the North Atlantic have faced increased competition in markets from cheap farmed fish from Asia and Africa, such as pangasius and tilapia. With the WhiteFish project, we hope to be able to show that our fish have less environmental impact than this competitive product, after all. "

The development work in the project is done with fresh fish fillets from Iceland and also the same process is examined with regard to fresh whole fish from Iceland which is transported in containers to Grimsby in the UK and processed there. The third research topic is sea-frozen fish from Norway and finally a fourth fish dish produced in Sweden.

"Based on this project, it can be said that a side project has been developed, supported by the Nordic InnovationCentre, where we are looking at what information the product market, ie. retailers and consumers, calls for. Both in terms of the content of the information and its form. These are questions such as whether consumers want information about the fishing method and the state of the stock with the product, how accurate the content descriptions need to be, whether it is better to develop a coding system so that consumers can go to a computer and trace a product's history and so on. Developments in the presentation of this information to consumers can create a unique position for Nordic fish products, and in this way this research is desirable, "says Jónas Rúnar.

For further information Jónas R. Viðarsson.

The board of the Student Innovation Fund has chosen the best projects carried out in 2011 to compete for the President of Iceland's Innovation Award 2012. Two parties in collaboration with Matís have been nominated. The award ceremony will take place at Bessastaðir. February. 

The parties in collaboration with Matís are Darri Eyþórsson and Einar Margeir Kristinsson on the one hand, but they worked on a project with Matís and the University of Iceland, which consisted of achieving improved utilization in Icelandic vegetable growing. Hugrún Lísa Heimisdóttir is also nominated for her project "Protein quantity analysis of the digestive tract of cod climbers" which is carried out in collaboration with Matís and the University of Akureyri.

Matís sincerely congratulates these parties, as well as all the nominees, on their great results and great projects.

More about the President of Iceland Award (from Rannís' website, www.rannis.is)
The board of the Student Innovation Fund has chosen the best projects that were done in 2011 to compete for the President of Iceland's Innovation Award 2012. The final finishing touches for the Student Innovation Fund's grants in 2011 are now nearing completion. The purpose of the fund is to support university students in undergraduate and master's studies for summer work in innovation and research. Almost 500 applications for grants for summer work in innovation and research were received by the fund this year.

The fund was funded by 50 million from the Ministry of Education and Culture and the City of Reykjavík contributed 30 million. The support enabled the Student Innovation Fund to support 131 projects where 190 students worked for 493 man-months.

The end point and also the highlight of the career is the awarding of the President of Iceland's Innovation Award to those projects that are considered to excel. All students who submit a final report before the advertised deadline are eligible for the award. This time, 111 reports were received by the fund before the deadline, so the board had difficulty selecting the projects that could be considered. The projects were extremely diverse and the work took place in all parts of the country.

The board of the Student Innovation Fund selects the projects that are nominated as top projects and compete for the President of Iceland's Innovation Award on the advice of the fund's professional councils. The award ceremony will take place at Bessastaðir next February. Further information can be obtained from Hulda Proppé, Hulda.P@rannis.is, tel. 515-5825 and 821-4332.

The finalization of the Student Innovation Fund's grants for the 2011 grant year is now nearing completion. The purpose of the fund is to support university students in undergraduate and master's studies for summer work in innovation and research. Almost 500 applications for grants for summer work in innovation and research were received by the fund this year.

The fund was funded by 50 million from the Ministry of Education and Culture and the City of Reykjavík contributed 30 million. The support enabled the Student Innovation Fund to support 131 projects where 190 students worked for 493 man-months.

The end point and also the highlight of the career is the awarding of the President of Iceland's Innovation Award to those projects that are considered to excel. All students who submit a final report before the advertised deadline are eligible for the award. This time, 111 reports were received by the fund before the deadline, so the board had difficulty selecting the projects that could be considered. The projects were extremely diverse and the work took place in all parts of the country.

The board of the Student Innovation Fund selects the projects that are nominated as top projects and compete for the President of Iceland's Innovation Award on the advice of the fund's professional councils. The award ceremony will take place at Bessastaðir next February. An overview of the projects that received nominations this time can be accessed here.

For further information, please contact Hulda Proppé at Rannís.

Helga Gunnlaugsdóttir and Sveinn H Magnússon write articles in the latest publication, which are the result of the project "Analysis of risks and benefits due to food consumption".

The entire issue can be found here.

For further information Helga Gunnlaugsdóttir.

Ragnar Jóhannsson, director of business development at Matís, says that the aim is to utilize the residual heat that is generated to a large extent, for example hot water and various compounds such as carbon dioxide, in connection with energy production in Reykjanes. 

Ragnar was interviewed in Iðnaðarblaðið recently. In the interview, it is stated, among other things, that Matís is working on financing projects related to the resources that are currently not utilized around geothermal power plants. The aim is to seek funding through the European Union's subsidy system and to connect companies in Europe that have similar situations. The aim is to utilize residual heat and various materials that are generated and create value from them and utilize it as raw material between companies, building up knowledge of the full utilization of the energy resource so that as little as possible is wasted.

The full interview can be found here but it was published in Iðnaðarblaðið on 19 December.

For further information Ragnar Jóhannsson.

Matís' annual report will soon be published, but the aim is for the report to be out of print in late January. If you are interested in knowing when the report will be published or about other things that take place at Matís, you can sign up for our mailing list here.

International co-operation is extensive in the report, which covers Matís' fifth full year of operation. The 2011 annual report provides insight into how Matís has, despite her young age, established a connection and reputation abroad. During the year that is coming to an end, Matís has systematically and consciously increased its emphasis on foreign projects, as they strengthen the operations in this country, strengthen Icelandic scientific work in general, strengthen the economy and ultimately the benefits to the general Icelander in the form of more and more diverse employment opportunities. for the country.

Icelanders pay a considerable amount to joint research funds in Europe, and with foreign scientific collaboration, that funding can in fact be recovered, with a good return if done well. The basis for this is a strong core of scientists and it is present in Matís. We are increasingly finding that we are being looked at by foreign parties, as the results of our foreign co-operation projects have been good. We have many desirable things to offer and we can strengthen Iceland's position with the knowledge we acquire through this co-operation. Through international projects, we gain access to facilities we would not otherwise have and a connection to expertise in specific areas.

With increased international scientific collaboration, it can be said that a leaf is broken. Icelanders have known about the export of goods for centuries, and it is worth mentioning the fishing industry. This includes both the export of raw materials and also more processed products. In our scientific work, it can be said that we are moving from the export of raw materials to the utilization of Icelandic knowledge of food production, the nation's basic industry through the centuries. Because we turn "knowledge raw materials" into an even more valuable product that we can both use in further efforts abroad and also here at home, for development in food production. In addition to us at Matís, other domestic researchers, institutions, universities and companies benefit from this.

Matís' structure and the company's priorities enable us to advance abroad. We have expertise in many aspects of the fisheries sector and we can also mention unique conditions for biotechnology research in this country due to, for example, the thermal areas, glaciers and nature both on land and in the sea. Many industries could therefore benefit from the foreign work that Matís has started, but not least the opportunities are clearest in the fisheries sector. New emphases in this field include market-related projects and emphases related to environmental issues and environmental impact. We Icelanders certainly have the opportunity to create an even stronger position in the world's product markets with our fish products. Matís International Work will help in that work in the coming years.

A similar story is being told about Icelandic agriculture. This field will open up opportunities in the near future abroad, not least with increased scientific and research work. Matís also looks at their possibilities.

Our scientists perceive that abroad we have a reputation to build on. Not just because we are Icelanders but because we can, know and know.