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The editor of the American newspaper NYT yesterday discussed the assessment of two reputable institutions in that country about the advantages and disadvantages of eating fish. To put it bluntly, both institutions find that the benefits outweigh the potential risks.

The institutions in question are the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (IMNAS) on the one hand and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) on the other. In their opinion, the benefits of fish consumption far outweigh the potential risks from pollution and microbes for most people. Even "sensitive" consumers, such as pregnant women and young children, benefit from increased fish consumption, if they cut from dangerous species.

According to IMNAS 'expert group, the positive effects of fish consumption include the fact that fish contains high-quality proteins, many vitamins and minerals. They point out that pregnant women can possibly have a positive effect on the vision and development of their children's brains through fish consumption, but also warn that this group and young children eat large predatory fish such as sharks and swordfish.

The guide says that experts from HSPH take even deeper into the years and assert that even moderate fish consumption can reduce the risk of death from coronary artery disease by up to 36%. In fact, the lead author of the NYT states that there is considerable uncertainty as to whether increased fish consumption can prevent coronary artery disease in those who have had it before, and that it is also uncertain whether fish consumption reduces the risk of diabetes, various cancers and Alzheimer's disease. previously indicated.

In the end, the NYT leader encourages the labeling of seafood to be improved so that consumers can more easily understand what fish species they are buying in supermarkets and fishmongers.

Read the NYT conductor

As the clear visitors of the IFL site have probably noticed, people were recently asked to take part in consumer surveys of cod here at IFL. The first part of the survey started today and a total of 100 people will take part in it today.

Participants are divided into six groups and the first group arrived at 10 this morning and the last one will come at 8 tonight. Each group will taste three different samples of cod and answer questions about the cod samples and then about fish consumption in general.

The second part of the survey involves people receiving cod that they are to cook at home, a total of 6 times over a 6-week period (every Tuesday) from October 17 to November 21. In particular, the participation of families was requested, as at least two were 18 years of age or older. 

People did not let the cold outside deter them from coming down to Skúlagata 4 this morning to get cod for breakfast.

A project was recently completed here at IFL where it was investigated whether it is possible to use less detergent for routine cleaning of fish processing equipment, but with the same result. Reducing the concentration of detergents can mean financial efficiency for the fish processing companies and not least more environmentally friendly working methods.

To find out, a series of experiments were set up examining several aspects of the general cleaning process, which were: Type of surface (stainless steel and plastic), temperature of rinsing water (8 or 28 ° C), two types of detergent and concentration of detergent (2% and 4,5%).

To evaluate these factors, a newly installed washing station at IFL was used, which makes it possible to standardize the cleaning better than previously known. Bacteria from their natural environment (minced cod) were used to form bacterial coatings on steel and plastic surfaces. Bacterial counts were used to assess the effects of the factors in the washing process. The results showed that on a steel surface it is possible to use a lower concentration of detergents than recommended and still achieve comparable results (Figure 1). As can be seen, these washing processes manage to destroy all bacteria on the surface, regardless of the temperature of the rinsing water and the concentration of detergent.

However, in the case of plastic surfaces, the results were not as conclusive and it was generally more difficult to eradicate the bacteria.

Figure 1. Example of results after washing cycle on steel surface.

Another aspect of this project was the analysis of the natural bacterial flora in the bacterial epithelium and a comparison of methods based on culture (Figure 2) and methods based on the amplification of the genetic material by molecular biological methods. Samples were taken from steel and plastic surfaces from the traditional washing processes of fish processing houses.  Somewhat similar results were obtained with each method.

Figure 2. Bacterial flora grown on iron rods.

The project was funded by the ACP and the Ministry of Fisheries.

A report has been published in the project called Better washing practices in fish processing plants (IFL report 26 - 06) Read

The aim is also to publish the results of the project in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

It can be said that a semi-autumn season has been spent publishing IFL reports, but in the last two weeks nine IFL reports have been completed, which is unusually large in such a short time. Most of these reports are open and accessible on IFL's website.

In the old days, there was talk that the autumn season would begin on 29 September. and will last until Christmas and this autumn season at IFL started around that time, but whether this season will last until Christmas, time will tell. One explanation for this growth in publishing could be that at the turn of the year, IFL will merge with two other institutions in the company Matís ohf, and therefore every effort is now being made to complete the projects that are bound by IFL before that time.

Of the nine recently released reports, most are open, while others are confidential, at least temporary. Various interesting results are published in the reports, such as an assessment of the possibilities of processing blue whiting into much more valuable products than is currently the case (report 25-06), another describes attempts to measure surface tension Pseudomonas putida and Listeria monocytogenes, to be able to explain why these bacteria are so common in the food industry (report 24-06), which was a joint project of IFL and the Institute of Technology.

In 2003, at the initiative of the Ministry of Fisheries, monitoring of undesirable substances in marine products, both products intended for human consumption and products for the fish oil and flour industry, began. The purpose of the monitoring is to assess the condition of Icelandic seafood in terms of the amount of contaminants. The third report from this project has now been published and covers the year 2005 (report 22-06).

There is now a growing debate in many places about what rules should apply to the labeling of food, and it is worth mentioning the discussion about genetically modified food. Fish and seafood are not excluded from this discussion and in report 21-06 an attempt is made to shed light on whether the added fish protein in fish products is subject to labeling. In addition, information was sought on methods that can be used to measure added substances, such as phosphate, water and fish protein, in fish products.

Finally, there is a report on the classification of microorganisms and experiments with the use of additive bacteria in aquaculture, which is a preventive project with the aim of using environmentally friendly methods to increase the performance of halibut and cod larvae in fire (18-06).

These and other open IFL reports can be found by click here.

The Fisheries Research Institute (IFL) is looking for people to take part in consumer surveys of cod. The surveys will be conducted in mid-October and will run until November next year.

There are two surveys:

1) a survey that takes place at IFL on Thursday 19 October and people, 18 years and older, are requested to come to us at Skúlagata 4 that day and taste fish Open a form

2) a survey where people bring fish home for cooking a total of 6 times over a 6-week period (every Tuesday) from October 17 to November 21. Here we are looking for families, where at least 2 are 18 years or older. Open a form

Those interested in participating in this project are kindly requested to click on the relevant URL above and fill out the document form that belongs to the survey they are interested in participating in and send to:  fisk@rf.is  (NOTE! You can only participate in one survey)

Participants receive a certificate of appreciation for their participation

More information by phone: 530 8665/530 8666/530 8667

Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir has been appointed CEO of Matís ohf. but it is the new company that will be created by merging IFL, RUST and Matvælarannsóknir in Keldnaholt. The new company issued the following press release this morning:

Dr. Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir has been appointed CEO of the newly established company Matís ohf. from 1 January 2007, when the company's actual operations begin. Sjöfn has been the director of the Fisheries Research Institute since 2002, but before that she worked in the field of food safety at the Health Protection Agency (now the Environment Agency) and in research and development at the Institute of Technology in collaboration with the food industry. Sjöfn has also served on committees and confidential positions in this field in recent years, both domestically and abroad. She is 43 years old.

Matís ohf. is a public limited company established by Act no. 68/2006 on 3 June last. for the purpose of merging public food research into one company. The operations of three institutions / units will be merged into one company, Matís ohf. from 1 January 2007, i.e. from the Fisheries Research Institute, RUST (the Environment Agency's research institute) and Matvælarannsóknir á Keldnaholt (collaboration between the Agricultural University and the Institute of Technology.   

Matís ohf. will have its operations in several places in the country, but with headquarters in Reykjavík. Division of Matís ohf. is primarily responsible for research and innovation in the field of food for the benefit of the economy, public health and food security.

All employees of the three units are offered a job at Matís ohf.

For further information, please contact Friðrik Friðriksson, Chairman of the Board, at 896 7350.

Recently, four students in research-related master's studies were added to the IFL aquaculture group in Akureyri, and they are all studying at the Faculty of Business and Science at the University of Akureyri. These are Rut Hermannsdóttir, Bjarni Jónasson and G.Stella Árnadóttir, who all graduated with a BS degree from the Faculty of Natural Resources at the University of Akureyri last spring, and Eyrún Gígja Káradóttir who graduated with a BS degree from the University of Iceland last spring.

Bjarni Jónasson and Ruth Hermannsdóttir worked on their BS projects in research projects that they continue to work on in their master's studies. Ruth participates in the project "Bioactive substances in halibut farming" and Bjarni is a participant in the project "Development of charr feed," but these projects are both funded by the AVS fund.

Stella Árnadóttir worked on his final project for a BS degree in the project "Feed for cod" which was funded by the AVS Fund and the Nordic Industrial Development Fund, but that project was recently completed and the final report will soon be published on the AVS website. In her master's studies, Stella will work on the project “Light control in cod farming” which is being worked on in IFL's experimental fish farms in Ísafjarðardjúpur and is funded by the AVS fund.

Bjarni Jónasson	Eyrún Gígja Káradóttir	Ruth Hermannsdóttir	Stella Árnadóttir

Eyrún Gígja Káradóttir will in his master's degree work on the project "Bætibakteríur í lúðueldi" which recently received a grant from the Rannís Technology Development Fund.

The students have been diligent in presenting their projects and the main results of research in the BS program. An article by Bjarni was recently published in the magazine Ægi and an abridged version of that article will be published soon in the 2nd issue. Rannísblaðið 2006. Rut presented her master's project in a seminar at the Faculty of Business and Natural Sciences at the University of Akureyri on Friday 22 September and was following the presentation in an interview on Channel 1's morning shift on 26 September.

Ruth has also just returned from a major conference on immunology research held in Paris 6-9. last September The purpose of the trip was first and foremost to learn about the main methods used in immunological research today.

Hildigunnur Rut Jónsdóttir has for the past two years been a student in research-related master's studies at the Faculty of Natural Resources at the University of Akureyri. Hildigunnur worked on the research part of the study on the project "Prevention in aquaculture" and she graduated with a master's degree from the Faculty of Natural Resources at the University of Akureyri last June

On Tuesday 3 October, Runólfur Guðmundsson will defend his master's project, ,,Decision-making and optimization in the fisheries sector”. The defense takes place in the premises of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Iceland (VRII), Hjarðarhagi 6, room V-158 and starts at 13.45. 

The master's project is part of the project ,,Cod catch processing forecast” which has been supported by AVS and Rannís research fund. The goal of the master's project was to analyze data that has been collected recently. 5 years on fillet utilization, ring worms and loess and show how the knowledge that has been created can be used to increase the profits of fishing companies. In his project, Runólfur developed an optimization model of decision-making in a shipping company and shows how data and methodology of this kind can be used in the management of a fishing company.

Runólf's supervisors were Páll Jensson, professor at the Faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Iceland, Sigurjón Arason, associate professor at the Faculty of Science and Sveinn Margeirsson, doctoral student at the University of Iceland and DTU. Examiner is Snjólfur Ólafsson, professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Iceland.

Everyone is welcome!

On 21-22 September, a meeting of the European project was held at IFL Chill-on, which is a large integrated project that started this summer. The project is funded by the EU and the grant amounts to a total of 9.8 million Euros and its total scope is about 15.1 m. Euro or about 1.4 billion Icelandic kronas.

IFL manages one of the four main research pillars of the Chill-on project as well as being involved in other aspects of its work. The meeting at IFL was part of the research group led by IFL and discusses refrigeration technology and the transport of sensitive foods such as fresh fish and how to increase the safety and quality of products with new technology.

Á website of the project states that the European Union's market area is the second largest market in the world for fresh and frozen foods and that trade in chilled and frozen foods increases by more than 10% per year. It also states that fish is in third place among the most consumed foods in Europe and due to the fragility of fresh fish, it has been decided to investigate everything related to quality and traceability in the supply chain and transport with chilled and frozen fish in the project. .

IFL's research in the project is mostly about fish products and methods to increase their shelf life and safety, but collaborative projects of this size open up various new possibilities and knowledge flows to Iceland.

The Chill-on project will also work on the development of the same elements for chicken products and the supply routes of such products to Europe. In this connection, it may be mentioned that from Brazil, for example, about 250 thousand tons of chicken breasts are exported annually to European markets. The Chill-on project includes a total of 24 participants from Europe and distant countries, such as China, South America, but participants in the meeting in Reykjavík, in addition to IFL researchers, came from Israel, Turkey, Spain, and Germany.

The project manager in Chill-on on behalf of IFL is dr. Sigurður Bogason:

Information about the project can be obtained from Matís, matis@matis.is 

Last week, a two-day meeting was held here at IFL in one part of the SEAFOODplus cluster project. This is the Seabac project, which is one of four categories that fall under the third pillar (3rd pill) of Sfplus.

Seabac's full name is Seafood: Enhanced assessment of bacterial associated contamination and its project manager is dr. Rachel Rangdale from The Center for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) in the UK.

According to Sigrún Guðmundsdóttir, who works on this project on behalf of IFL and organized the meeting here in Reykjavík, it was a regular project meeting. "We are working on developing methods to find pathogens Vibrio spp. in shellfish. We use both PCR methods and so-called "hybridization" methods, "she says. Sigrún says that work is also underway to develop a PFGE method for comparing relationships V. parahaemolyticus strains that have been found.  

The meeting was attended by participants from the UK, France, Italy, Portugal and Iceland. A participant from Spain was not able to attend the meeting.