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The Minister of Finance, Árni Mathiesen, formally opened the Matís office (Matvælarannsóknir Íslands) and the Lobster Hotel in Höfn in Hornafjörður today. At the opening, the Minister and Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir, CEO of Matís, enjoyed fresh lobster from the Lobster Hotel.

Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir, CEO of Matís, said at the opening that the goal of the Höfn office was to strengthen research work, create facilities and a platform for increased collaboration with the business community and promote value creation in collaboration with food companies in the area.

Hjalti Vignisson, Mayor of Höfn, said that it was important for the area to get food research companies like Matís to strengthen development work and promote a more diverse economy.

At the Lobster Hotel, which is a collaborative project between Matís, the East Iceland Entrepreneurship Center, Sæplast, the Marine Research Institute and Skinney Þinganes, it is possible to store live lobsters caught in the depths of Hornafjörður. The lobster is transported live to the hotel where it is stored in refrigerated conditions. It is then transported live to the market abroad. A pilot project on the export of live lobster has been going on for the past few months and the lobster has already been exported to Belgium.

The project has therefore been very successful, but we have managed to get up to a third higher price for live lobster from Höfn than frozen lobster.

Figure 1: Árni Mathiesen, Minister of Finance, and Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir, CEO of Matís, taste fresh lobster from the Lobster Hotel at the opening of Matís' office in Höfn.

Figure 2: Friðrik Friðriksson, Chairman of the Board of Matís, and Árni Mathiesen, Minister of Finance.

Figure 3: Hjalti Vignisson, Mayor of Höfn, and Ari Þorsteinsson, Executive Director of the East Iceland Entrepreneurship Center.

The Nordic Committee for Food Methodology (NMKL) has issued guidelines on sensory evaluation of food packaging. They are in Swedish and are called Guidelines for sensory assessment of food packaging and among the authors is Emilía Martinsdóttir, project manager at Matís.

The Nordic Committee for Food Methodology (NMKL) is a committee of the Nordic Council, which is made up of representatives from all the Nordic countries. Iceland's representatives in NMKL are six from four institutions or companies, three of which are from Matís. They are Franklín Georgsson, division manager, Margrét Geirsdóttir, project manager and Heiða Pálmadóttir, department manager. The committee is one of several committees that work in a forum called Nordic forum on food.

According to the Nordic Council's website, "the aim of Nordic co - operation in food is to protect consumers' health, prevent misleading labeling and encourage the consumption of healthier foods."

NMKL's role is, among other things, to coordinate methods for testing and evaluating food in the Nordic countries, as well as to prepare instruction booklets for quality control in laboratories related to food research and in the food industry.

The guidelines cover sensory evaluation of food packaging, how to train judges and how to perform sensory evaluation. In the sensory evaluation of packaging, foods must be selected for the sensory evaluation tests and the properties of the foods must be taken into account, for example whether beverages, high-fat or low-fat foods with a low water content, dairy products, etc. In this case, a shelf life test is often carried out where the food is stored in the relevant packaging for a certain period of time. The guidelines are clear and should be useful to both food packaging manufacturers and food manufacturers. The instructions are in Swedish but we are working on translating them into English.

As stated earlier, Emilía Martinsdóttir, project manager at Matís, is one of the authors of the guidelines, while another Icelandic author is Ása Þorkelsdóttir, who worked for IFL for many years. For further information, contact Emilia at 422 5032, who has been at the forefront of the use of sensory evaluation in the food industry in Iceland for many years.

Matís advertises for several employees in the Westfjords and in Reykjavík. In the Westfjords, there is an advertisement for Aflakaupabanki's project manager, a specialist in specific measurements and a project manager in the field of processing technology.

There are also advertisements for two assistants in the microbiological laboratory and the chemical laboratory.

Further information about the jobs can be found here.

Hundreds of live lobsters from Iceland, which were brought to the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels, Belgium, attracted a lot of attention from visitors to the exhibition.

The lobsters, which were caught in Hornarfjarðardjúpur, were first transported to the lobster hotel, which is run by Matís (Icelandic Food Research) and the East Iceland Entrepreneurship Center. There they were cooled before they were exported by Icelandair Cargo to Brussels. The lobsters were then transported to the booth of the company OOJEE. The lobsters are considered healthy in size but they are about 100 gr. to weight on average.

Fishing and transporting live lobsters from Hornafjörður is part of a pilot project by Matís, Frumkvöðlasetus Austurlands and Skinney Þinganes. It is funded by the AVS Research Fund.

The European Seafood Exposition exhibition in Brussels started last. Tuesday and ends today, April 26th. In fact, there are two exhibitions in the same place: the European Seafood Exposition, which shows seafood and Seafood Processing Europe with machines, equipment, services and other equipment for the fishing industry.

In the picture are fv: Guðmundur Gunnarsson, Matís, Ari Þorsteinsson, Executive Director of the East Iceland Entrepreneurship Center, and Karl Jóhannesson, OOJEE.

Yesterday, the company Verið Vísindagarðar ehf. presented at an open meeting in Sauðárkrókur. One of the main goals of the Verse is to promote the development of the economy, strengthen research and study opportunities and increase value creation in collaboration with companies in the area.

At the introductory meeting, the Minister of Fisheries, Einar K. Guðfinnsson, said that Verið Vísindagarðar was a successful way of developing the economy in the area, especially in the food industry. He said that the ministry had made an effort to increase the number of specialist jobs at the ministry's institutions in the countryside, but that they had increased by the last 25 semesters and that a similar number was at least foreseeable. In his speech, the Minister emphasized the importance of increasing employment opportunities for university-educated people in rural areas, as well as study opportunities, and said that the establishment of Versinn Vísindagarður was part of that.

The company Verið Vísindagarðar ehf was founded earlier this year and will handle the operation of teaching and research facilities in the form of science parks in connection with Hólar University, Matís (Matvælarannsóknir Íslands), FISK Seafood and other parties. The company aims for further development in this field by creating facilities and a platform for increased collaboration between the business community, domestic and foreign universities and researchers.

Vísindagarður is currently run in a 1,500 square meter building at Háeyri 1, where Hólar University has facilities for teaching and research in aquaculture, fish biology, marine and aquatic biology. Matís also has operations there for the company Iceprotein, which produces protein from fish cuts. The Minister of Fisheries said at the introductory meeting that Matís' participation in research and development work at Verin had, among other things, the aim of creating benefits for the business community and promoting further investment and job creation. The same applies to the activities of research institutes under the Ministry of Fisheries in many parts of the country.

Science parks, such as those that have been opened in Sauðárkrókur, have been established at numerous universities abroad because experience shows that such activities are a powerful way to strengthen settlements and communities with extensive university work in close collaboration with companies, institutions and municipalities.

Due to the great interest of those who come to Verin and others, there are already plans to significantly improve the existing housing; such as research facilities and additional work facilities for teachers, students and researchers.

Gísli Svan Einarsson has been appointed managing director of Versinn, having previously worked as a shipping manager at FISK Seafood in Sauðárkrókur. Gísli provides all further information by phone: 825 4409.

Wednesday 25 April between 16-18 there will be an open house in the Verin-Þróunarsetrin by the harbor in Sauðárkrókur where various innovative projects that are being worked on in the area will be presented. The occasion is the establishment of a new company called Verið Vísindagarðar ehf.

The plant was formally opened th. March 7 last year in the premises of FISK Seafood by the harbor in Sauðárkrókur. The development center is a collaborative project between Matís, the University of Akureyri, the University of Iceland, FISK Seafood and Hólar University, and the Ministries of Industry and Fisheries jointly worked together. ISK 10 million for the project at the opening of the development center.

A special company, Verið Vísindagarðar ehf, has now been established to take care of teaching and research facilities in the development center.