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Matís ohf. wants to hire a cook to take care of the salad bar and soup for lunch at his office at Gylfaflöt 5 in Grafarvogur. Advertisement to that effect appeared in Morgunblaðið this weekend.

This is a 40% position and the working hours are from 11 to 14.

Further information:
Ragnar Jóhannsson, tel. 422 5106 or ragnar.johannsson@matis.is
Sigríður Hjörleifsdóttir, tel. 422 5113 or sigridur.hjorleifsdottir@matis.is

Applications should be sent to Jón H. Arnarson, Matís' human resources manager, at the e-mail address jon.h.arnarson@matis.is.

Click here to see advertised jobs at Matís and to fill out a general job application.

The management of the Wholefoods Market retail chain came to Matís recently and got to know the company's operations.

Wholefoods Market (www.wholefoodsmarket.com/) is a large US retail chain that began operations in the state of Texas in 1980. The retail chain has operations in over 270 stores in the United States and in England and is best known for selling food that has been as little involved in production as possible. For example, the retail chain's selection of organically grown foods is among the best known in the world. The company has also placed great emphasis on knowing where food comes from and has been particularly interested in origin labeling. Wholefoods Market's visit to Matís was, among other things, precisely for the purpose of getting to know food labeling better, but Matís has been at the forefront of research in this area.

The next day, Baldvin Jónsson, who is Iceland's liaison with Wholefoods Market, gave a very interesting lecture for Matís employees on the chain's operations and the company's value. This lecture aroused great interest in the opinion of some who listened that many of the practices and values of Wholefoods Market could be modeled in this country.

Attached are photos from the visit.

The management of the Wholefoods Market retail chain came to Matís recently and got to know the company's operations.

The fishing company Cumbrian Seafoods took over almost two years ago a new fish processing house in Seatham on the east coast of Britain. The building is particularly technologically advanced by British standards, but this 250-person company supplies many of the UK's largest retailers with seafood.

Cumbrian seafood puts a lot of effort into making their production as consistent as possible with modern requirements for the sustainability of the entire life cycle of the product they produce, so they have now decided to install windmills that will supply the fish processing house with all the electricity it needs. In this way, they expect to be able to virtually eliminate the "carbon footprint" of the processing.

The demand from retailers and consumers in the UK for an improved flow of information regarding carbon production in the production of various products has increased enormously in recent months, and Cumbrian Seafoods has decided to make this investment, even though they believe that their electricity costs will increase as a result.

Subsequently, the question is whether we should not, to a greater extent than has been done so far, implement the thinking of life cycle analysis (LCA) in the production and labeling of seafood. This is an issue that Matís has been very interested in in recent months and the company is interested in promoting the introduction of life cycle analysis in the production of Icelandic food.

ISI magazine Aquaculture recently published an article by Rannveiga Björnsdóttir, director of aquaculture and lecturer at the University of Akureyri. Four experts at Matís are co-authors of the article entitled "Survival and quality of halibut larvae (Hippoglossus hippoglossus L.) in intensive farming: possible impact of the intestinal bacterial community".

The article discusses the number and composition of the bacterial flora of halibut larvae related to the growth, quality and decline of larvae in the early stages of rearing. Halibut is a high quality fish that is well priced in the markets and is therefore an important species in aquaculture. There are large losses in the early stages of breeding and they have been linked to bacterial stress, although the effects of individual species are poorly defined and therefore debatable. It was therefore decided to start mapping the bacterial flora of halibut larvae in all production units at Fiskey hf. during a certain period. The main results showed great variability in the number and composition of bacteria in the larvae and there were indications that certain species were only found in larvae from breeding units where the survival and quality of larvae were above average. Bacterial species that have not been previously identified in halibut were also found. The study also showed that there was a link between the number of cultivable bacteria and a certain defect, which means that the larvae are not able to feed.

The article as a whole can be accessed here.

Other articles from Matís employees as well as other publications, reports, leaflets etc. can be found here.

In research by Björn Margeirsson, a doctoral student at Matís, it was found that foam plastic boxes have considerably more insulating value than comparable boxes made of corrugated plastic. It is important that the packaging protects the product from temperature fluctuations on its way to the market.

The project "Simulation of cooling processes" is funded by the AVS Fund, the RANNÍS Technology Development Fund and the University of Iceland Research Fund, and the intention is to improve temperature control in the processing and transport processes for fish products. Extensive experiments have recently been carried out with two types of packaging for fresh fish fillets, ie. corrugated plastic box on the one hand and foam plastic box on the other. Fresh fillets were placed in both types along with thermoses, the boxes were also with and without ice mats. The cooling mats (ice mats) proved to be very effective in protecting the fish fillets from heat stress. Furthermore, the results showed the superior thermal insulation of the foam plastic box over the corrugated plastic box regardless of the use of cooling mats. In fact, the difference in insulation value is even more visible when using cooling mats. Experiments with fully stacked pallets of fish boxes (approximately 300 kg per pallet) showed that the average temperature rise of fillets can be double for a corrugated plastic box with a foam plastic box, provided that the surrounding air is 10 ° C hot and has considerable movement.

The green, thin line shows the air temperature around the packages, while the other lines show the temperature inside the boxes.

Finally, it was shown that a few hours Fluctuations in air temperature around a whole fishing board can cause a very uneven temperature distribution within the position of the board. In the project "Simulation of cooling processes", heat transfer models will be developed, which can be used to evaluate the effect of the thermal stress, which packaged fish products are inevitably exposed to during transport processes. The possibility of redesigning the packaging to ensure a better product will also be examined.

The project manager's report can be accessed here: Thermal Performance of Corrugated Plastic boxes and Expanded Polystyrene Boxes

Matís conducts an extensive pan-European study on the quality characteristics of cod, attitudes and tastes of consumers. The aim of the project was to investigate the relationship between quality characteristics, tastes and attitudes of consumers in four European countries (Iceland, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands).

Matís' trained sensory evaluation team assessed the quality characteristics of cod products that differed in origin (wild / farmed cod), freshness (short and long-term storage), and storage methods (fresh, frozen, packaging in aerated packaging). At the same time, almost 400 consumers in four countries tasted the same products and gave a rating according to how good / bad they thought the fish was. Consumer attitudes and consumption behavior were also examined.

The cod products had very different quality characteristics, for example farmed cod was much lighter than wild cod, in addition to having a meaty texture, smell and taste. There was a large difference in fish consumption (both frequency and fish products) and purchasing behavior between countries and by age. Attitudes (related to fish and fish consumption) also varied, as did tastes for cod products. For example, Icelanders ate much more fish, shopped more at fishmongers, were more convinced of the health of fish, least insecure when buying fish and had the best access to fish. Young consumers generally ate less fish and were generally more negative about fish and fish consumption.

The article also discusses ways to increase fish consumption by different groups of consumers. The results of this study were recently published in Food Qulity and Preference and can be seen in the article here.

Kolbrún Sveinsdóttir, Emilia Martinsdóttir, Ditte Green-Petersen, Grethe Hyldig, Rian Schelvis, Conor Delahunty. 2009. Sensory characteristics of different cod products related to consumer preferences and attitudes. Food Quality and Preference, 20 (2) 120-132.

The Rannís Technology Development Fund presented the activities of start-up companies in Reykjavík City Hall on Friday 9 and Saturday 10 January.

The presentation began with an address by Össur Skarphéðinsson, Minister of Industry, at 14:00. Start-up companies presented their activities as a result and the presentation took place both on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday at 13:00, there was a special presentation on bridge construction between funds and branches, and public support for innovation was presented.

A large number of people made their way to the Town Hall and it was the unanimous opinion of those who came to the presentation that it had been extremely successful. Here you can see some pictures from Rannís' presentation.

See more here: www.rannis.is/

Recently, the 5th open conference of the SEAFOODplus cluster project was held in Copenhagen. SEAFOODplus is one of the so-called cluster projects in the 6th EU research program and was launched in the beginning of 2004. On that occasion, a scientific publication was published, "Improving seafood products for the consumer", where many from Matís contributed material.

SEAFOODplus was one of the so-called cluster projects in the 6th EU research program and also one of the largest single research projects that the EU had funded at the time for research on fish and seafood (26 m?). The main goal of S-plus was to promote the health of European consumers by encouraging increased fish consumption and thus reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The project is divided into two main parts and the larger part was dedicated to Research and Technology Development (RTD), which was divided into five main categories. One of these categories was dedicated to consumers (Seafood and consumer behavior and well-being). The aforementioned scientific journal is precisely a compilation of articles from this field.

The Fisheries Research Institute (IFL - now Matís), together with various major food research institutes in Europe, took part in organizing projects in the field of processing, quality and safety of seafood with an emphasis on improving the health and well-being of European consumers. Icelandic parties participated in more than a third of the research projects and managed two of them. Guðjón Þorkelsson, division manager at Matís, manages one of them, Propehealth.

The other part of SEAFOODplus focused on the transfer of knowledge to industry and the presentation of the results of research to industry (Industry, Training and Dissemination ITD). It is worth mentioning that Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir, CEO of Matís, is the coordinator of Part 4 of ITD SEAFOODplus, entitled Creation of New Business Activities, in addition to being a member of the project's executive committee.

As mentioned before, a successful scientific journal was recently published "Improving seafood products for the consumer,”Book up to almost. 600 pages, which contains a large number of articles that are in one way or another related to the SEAFOODplus project. The book is published by Woodhead Publishing Limited in Cambridge, England and is divided into six parts.

Many of Matís' employees have articles in the book, as IFL / Matís took an active part in this pan-European research project, as previously stated. More information about the book can be found here.

One gram of soil contains billions of micro-organisms, the fewest of which can be isolated, but by isolating DNA directly from such samples, genes can be obtained and utilized in industry.

Matís-Prokaria was one of the first companies in Europe funded by the European Union to develop a methodology for searching for enzyme genes directly from environmental samples. This project was in the fifth framework program of the European Union and was called Thermogen. The work in this project involved looking for starch-degrading and starch-producing enzyme genes from thermal samples with new technology to be developed. In addition to Matís-Prokaria, only two research groups were involved in the project, which was led by Guðmundur Óli Hreggviðsson and Ólafur H. Friðjónsson. The results of the project were very important in the development of the methodology on which much of Matís-Prokaria's activities today are based on enzyme gene search. Master's and doctoral students graduated in projects both here and abroad. An increased understanding was gained of the nature and properties of starch-converting enzymes. Some are valuable insider knowledge, but three articles have been published based on the results of the project and one is newly published and it discusses the properties of a certain subgroup of starch enzymes that were revealed in this study. The article can be found in its entirety here.