Sæmundur Sveinsson is genetics manager at Matís and in this episode of Matvælin he talks about salmon genetic analysis and projects related to it.
The Atlantic salmon is a remarkable organism and its life cycle has very interesting implications for the genetics of the species. The wild Icelandic salmon population is very different from farmed salmon, and it is extremely important to know the characteristics of these species well in order to be able to maintain diversity even though environmental conditions change, including global warming.
In the episode, Sæmundur discusses the life cycle of Icelandic salmon and its genetic diversity depending on the water area, genetic analysis of salmon from sea hog farming and genetic analysis of salmon for so-called fish farming, to name a few. Sæmundi's song deals with these issues in an easy-to-understand and fun way, so it's safe to recommend listening to everyone!
The episode is available in its entirety on all major podcasts and in the player below:
The husband and wife Þórunn Ólafsdóttir and Haraldur Guðjónsson started producing garlic in full force in the summer of 2023, but garlic cultivation begins with sowing seeds in autumn and harvesting in late summer the following year. Last summer was spent almost exclusively on growing seeds, so the first whole garlics are expected in stores in the fall of 2024. However, a by-product of the seed cultivation is the cloves of garlic, which are too small for seeds, and that's where this story begins.
The couple turned to Matís for their sake The food factory which operates at Matís in Reykjavík and believed that operations in a fully equipped food factory that is already in operation would be sufficient to start food production, packaging, sales and distribution. However, something else happened during the day. Cultivation and sale of whole garlic does not require special permits since it is primary production. If the onion is further processed, such as separating the ribs in the onion, peeling, cleaning or further processing, then it is considered food processing.
Food processing, by whatever name it is called, requires a license. You need to apply for a work permit from those who grant it. The local health authority or the Swedish Food Agency, depending on the nature of the activity. In this case, it was the Reykjavík Health Authority that had to grant the permit.
Since some time had passed since the garlic was taken up, it was starting to lose quality, and therefore needed a quick hand in obtaining a work permit.
The first step is to make a quality manual. A quality manual must state what is to be produced, from which raw materials, who produces, where and how the production takes place. Information on nutritional content and possible intolerances is also needed. It must be demonstrated that the person understands the rules that food manufacturers obey, the shelf life of the product must be explained, which packaging will be used and confirmation that it is intended for food must be obtained. Then you need to know the difference between personal hygiene and general handling of food, for example possible cross-contamination and how to prevent it, but this is done through risk analysis.
As soon as there was a request for Matís to provide advice on the preparation of a quality manual, we started. A day later, a usable quality manual was ready that could be presented to the health inspectorate, and it was also then possible to request a work permit. The license was obtained two days later, and then the production of garlic salt began, but it is the first product that came to the market from Dalahvítlauk, produced in Matís's Matirsmiðja at Vínlandsleið 12.
You can follow fun posts about the crops and products on Dalahvítlauk's Facebook page here: Valley garlic.
Iceland has long been at the forefront of the utilization of so-called secondary raw materials, and one of the raw materials that is interesting to evaluate both with an opportunity for value creation and environmental issues in mind is water from, for example, fish processing plants and land farms. The Accelwater project that Matís is currently working on is about finding solutions to make use of value from process water and the best use of water in the fishing industry and cooking.
Hildur Inga Sveinsdóttir manages the part of the work that Matís does in the project, but it is done in collaboration with 17 parties from five European countries with funding from the European Union through Horizon 2020. "We decided to participate in the project in collaboration with strong industrial partners in Iceland and aimed to use the work in order to assess the opportunities that exist in this field in this country". The project is led by the Greek technology company Agenso and involves many participants, both from industry and the research environment. In addition to Matís, the Icelandic participants in the project are the University of Iceland's Faculty of Food and Nutrition, Útgerðarfélag Akureyri and Samherji Fiskeldi.
But what are side ingredients?
It's really a question of word usage, but it's often talked about side currents or side ingredients. This refers to raw materials that you can get out of processing that are not the main product you are looking for. Fishing and processing is a good example, where fishing is done in order to obtain fish fillets for consumption, while side streams are other raw materials that may have previously been defined as waste or garbage. These can be for example heads, skins, guts or whatever, but when you handle these things right there are opportunities to get a lot of value out of them.
We try to use the word side ingredient because that way we indicate that this is an ingredient that we can use for something, not just "extra junk" that we need to get rid of. We emphasize to stop talking about this as waste or rubbish because it often evokes negative mental associations that give a wrong image of the raw material. For example, in recent years, a variety of valuable products have been developed from fish roe, which in the past would have been thought to be impossible.
Fresh water use in food processing and better utilization
The main goal of the project is to use value from water and reduce fresh water consumption during food processing. Foreign partners are working on experiments within the value chain in tomato growing, meat processing, the dairy industry and in brewing. In Hérland, emphasis is placed on land cultivation of whitefish and land farming of salmon. Emphasis has been placed on assessing the situation by analyzing the environmental impact and use, then which resources are used in these different processes, and then what possible opportunities exist for saving water and energy resources on the one hand, and on the other hand what possibilities there are for value creation from the main water streams.
The project is still ongoing and there is more than a year left of the planned work. The results that have been collected so far show that Icelanders generally use a lot of water during processing and there are opportunities to reduce that use, but the methods that are planned to be evaluated in the project are being developed and it will be exciting to see what they deliver. In addition, there are great opportunities in relation to the utilization of side streams from land farming, especially aquaculture sludge or aquaculture manure, which contains a large amount of valuable nutrients that can potentially be used to make fertilizers, for example. Experiments and analyzes of the opportunities that lie in that raw material are currently underway, along with an assessment of their safety.
Stefán Þór Eysteinsson in biomass plant Matís in Neskaupstaður
Water is a valuable resource
The discussion that has been created about the project keeps alive the important fact that we must not take it for granted that here in Iceland there is good access to the resource that is clean fresh water and we make sure to always use it as sparingly as possible. The project has also entered into an important discussion related to the development of rural agriculture in this country.
results The results of the project will be published in open scientific publications and presented to relevant stakeholders as appropriate so that they will be useful to other parties in the industry in Iceland and abroad. Results will also be useful for policy making and setting up and reviewing processes in fish processing and land farming, the latter of which is the fastest growing industry in Iceland today.
Hildur Inga Sveinsdóttir, project manager at Matís is an interviewee in this episode of Matvælin, Matís' podcast about research and innovation in food production.
It talks about the value hidden in raw materials that we can get out of food processing, but which are not the main material we are working with; so-called side ingredients. She connects all of this with the European collaborative project Accelwater, which she is currently working on.
Iceland has long been at the forefront of the utilization of secondary raw materials, and one of the raw materials that is interesting to evaluate both with an opportunity for value creation and environmental issues in mind is water from, for example, fish processing plants and farm farms. The Accelwater project is about finding solutions to make use of the value of process water and the best use of water in the fishing and farming industries.
Hilda's passion for delivering the content of the Accelwater project clearly and reliably shines through in this interview, and listeners can therefore expect an informative and refreshing listen.
The show is available on all major podcasts and also in the player below.
Now the Food Fund project Development of an image and spectroscopic predictive model to assess the quality of fishmeal as an ingredient in salmon farm feed halfway through, but the previous project year ended in the autumn of 2023. This is a joint project of the Association of Icelandic Fishmeal Producers, Síldarvällúnn, Eskja, Ísfélagin, the University of Iceland and Matís. The goal of the project is to develop a NIR (near-infrared spectroscopy) prediction model that enables fishmeal producers to obtain a fast and accurate analysis of the quality of fishmeal as an ingredient in salmon feed.
Most Icelandic fishmeal producers already use NIR to measure the chemical content of the fishmeal, and thus get good indications of its quality. However, the NIR measurements that are carried out today are of limited use when it comes to assessing the quality of the fishmeal for its main use, i.e. as an ingredient in aquaculture feed. If such measurements are to be made, growth and digestibility experiments must be carried out in aquaculture, which are both time-consuming and costly. By developing a NIR prediction model, however, it is possible to shorten the time of the analyzes from many months to a few seconds, and the cost from many millions to almost nothing.
This is not a new approach, as Norwegian feed producers developed such NIR prediction models a few years ago and have used them to assess the quality of the fishmeal they buy. However, these manufacturers have considered their predictive models to be trade secrets, giving them a competitive advantage. By developing and making similar forecasting models available to Icelandic fishmeal producers, they will have the same (or better) information about the characteristics of their production as their customers, and therefore enable them to negotiate prices with their customers on an equal footing. The predictive model will also enable fishmeal producers to evaluate/improve their own production, with information for internal quality control. The database/prediction model will be handed over to the participants (fishmeal producers) towards the end of the project, together with the fact that courses on its use will be held.
As mentioned before, the project will take two years, and that work is now halfway done. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024.
You can learn more about the project at Matís website, in addition to which you can contact the project manager directly jonas@matis.is.
Matís has, in recent years, systematically built up genetic analysis of animals and there are staff in the professional group genetics who is credited with it. Among other things, research is conducted on livestock, especially cattle, horses and sheep. The projects carried out mainly consist of genetic analyzes of these beneficial strains and data processing together with sequencing of the genetic material of organisms, the search for new genetic boundaries and the development of genetic analysis kits.
In Iceland, some livestock stocks are specifically Icelandic, while others are imported. Chickens and pigs, for example, are imported, but cattle, horses, sheep and goats are entirely of Icelandic stock. This means that Icelandic companies are the only ones in the world that carry out breeding of these four livestock stocks. The Agricultural Advisory Center (RML) is in charge of breeding these stocks. At Matís, we have mainly worked with three species, i.e. cattle, horses and sheep.
Cattle farming
Matís performs genetic analyzes that are useful in breeding the Icelandic cow population. The Icelandic strain is a unique strain in the world, distantly related to other breeds, and there are many indications that the protein composition of milk from Icelandic cows is different from other milk. It is extremely important to preserve this unique population, and one of the best ways to preserve livestock populations like this is to use them in the production of agricultural products.
The Farmers' Association and the Agricultural Advisory Center (RML) worked for several years on the implementation of so-called genome selection in cattle breeding, and Matís carries out the genetic analysis used in this. In short, breeding in cattle breeding is based on finding and using the best bulls in breeding work. To put it simply, the best bulls are those that produce the best daughters, i.e. heifers that milk a lot, are healthy and fertile. In genome selection, the breeding value of bull calves is calculated based on genetic parameters analyzed soon after calving. This methodology therefore greatly speeds up breeding and increases safety in the selection of the best bulls that are then used for insemination. Matís' genetics group analyzes between 6,000 and 8,000 artifacts per year.
horses
Matís offers parentage analyzes in horses, but those analyzes are an important part of the breeding work of the Icelandic horse, which has gained more importance in recent years. With parentage analysis, the pedigree of horses is scientifically confirmed and this greatly increases the safety of all breeding calculations. These analyzes are also done in close collaboration with RML. The staff of RML and other sampling parties take care of sampling from horses, which takes place in a similar way to what people used when they took a Covid test. Matís then isolates the genetic material and performs the genetic analyses. The staff of the genetics group analyze between 1,200 – 2,000 horses each year.
At Matís, work is currently being done to also offer genetic analyzes in other genetic sites in horses. Ideally, it is color genes and known genetic defects that we are looking at. The Icelandic horse is an extremely colorful horse breed and it is part of the breeding goals to maintain color diversity within the stock. Color in horses is determined by 8-12 genetic sites (genes) and it would be valuable for Icelandic horse breeders to have access to analyzes of these color genes. RML's recruiters have especially noticed an interest in this among foreign buyers of Icelandic horses.
Sheep
Genetic defects
Few genetic defects cause a lot of damage in Icelandic sheep breeding, and only two are serious problems, namely yellow fat and bökkreppa. Both are recessive genetic defects, meaning that individuals need two copies of the defective gene for them to be affected. Yellow fat is caused by a mutation in a gene that breaks down certain yellow compounds and causes the fat to acquire a yellowish color similar to the color of fat on horse meat. The yellow fat has no effect on the taste quality, but some production centers do not accept artifacts that show this genetic defect, and therefore this can cause financial losses for individual farmers. Matís is awaiting genetic analysis of yellow fat.
Bow crisis is a much more serious genetic defect. The gene is unknown, so there is still no genetic test that identifies carriers. The genetic defect is not known in other breeds of sheep, but the phenotype manifests itself as severely deformed front legs and lambs often cannot stand up. Most individuals are therefore euthanized shortly after birth. Because the genetic defect is recessive, the defective gene can be hidden in herds and it is impossible to eradicate the defect except through genetic analyses.
Matís has been conducting research on bow crisis in recent years, in collaboration with RML and Keldur, to find the genetic defect in the sheep's genome and develop a genetic test. The first results of these studies are expected in February 2024.
Fertility genes and parentage analyses
Two genetic variations are known in Icelandic sheep that cause increased fertility in ewes: Þoku- and Lóugen. These are mutations in the same gene. When the gene is in a heterozygous state, the fertility of females increases greatly and it is common for them to have four- and five-limbed offspring instead of one- and two-limbed offspring. This can therefore be an extremely important tool in sexual enhancement, and Matís has been offering analyzes of this feature for years.
Matís offers parentage analysis in sheep, comparable to parentage analysis in horses and dogs. A lot of rickets genes have been identified in recent years, and the situation has now arisen that the genotype of lambs does not match the genotype of the parents. Parentage analysis can be used to find the father of an offspring. These tests are an extremely useful tool in research, especially when looking for genetic defects.
Prion gene genotyping analyses
Matís has offered genotyping of the so-called prion gene in sheep since the company was founded. A total of about 10,000 sheep have been diagnosed with us. Rickets is a prion disease that has plagued Icelanders, especially in the last century but also in recent years. Prion diseases are different from bacterial and viral diseases, where the rubella agent is a protein. It therefore contains no genetic material. The rubella agent changes the structure of the natural prion protein, which is important in the nervous system of mammals. In a specific region of the prion gene, there are 6 sites that affect the susceptibility of sheep to scrapie. Three of these sites are very well known and three other sites in the gene are being investigated. The genotype of animals will in the near future be very important in breeding and the reaction of the Icelandic Food Agency when scabies is discovered in a herd.
Regarding the breeding side, RML aims to introduce protective genotypes very quickly in herds in parts of the country where rubella infection occurs regularly and steadily elsewhere in the country. With these methods and actions, it will be possible to spare certain genotypes from culling when scabies is detected in herds in the future. Matís has human resources and equipment to analyze genotypes in sheep. Considerable funds are expected in the 2024 budget for genotyping sheep, and Matís' staff is ready to take care of these analyses.
A podcast about heredity
Recently, a new episode of Matvælin, Matís' podcast about research and innovation in food production, was released. There was Sæmundur Sveinsson, genetics manager at Matís, interviewer, and he discussed genetic research and projects related to it in an easy-to-understand and fun way. It is possible to listen to the episode in its entirety on all major podcasts, but also here: Icelandic livestock species – genetic analyzes and breeding work
Sæmundur Sveinsson, head of genetics at Matís, is an interviewee in this episode of Matvælin, and he talks about genetic research and breeding of Icelandic livestock species in a way that everyone can understand and keep their attention!
In Iceland, some livestock stocks are specifically Icelandic, while others are imported. Cattle, horses, sheep and goats are entirely of Icelandic stock, and this means that Icelandic operators are the only ones in the world who breed these four types of livestock.
At Matís, we have mainly worked with three species, i.e. cattle, horses and sheep and research on these populations is discussed here.
The episode is available in its entirety on all major podcasts and in the player below:
The tradition of shark eating in Iceland is rich and can be traced back centuries. Despite this, very few scientific studies have been conducted to examine or improve the mechanism of action of these foods. With a grant from the Food Fund, Matís' staff in collaboration with Bjarnarhöfn tourism, the largest producer of the best shark in Iceland, has worked on improvements there with the project Hákarlsverkun.
Election of a shark (Somniosus microcephalus) is an age-old method of preservation. Kæstur hakarl was for a long time an important source of energy and protein and also a large part of Icelanders' diet, but today it is mainly eaten as a delicacy on the dry land. Kæstur hákarl is also popular with tourists who like to consider it a national dish of Icelanders. It is important from a cultural point of view and Icelandic food tradition that a production process as unique as the effect of shark is, will continue to be practiced and that we have more scientific and technical knowledge of the effect of shark to ensure that the product is safe and of the right quality.
Shark action is divided into two parts, one is cooling and the other is drying. The goal of the project Hákarlsverkun was to identify and understand the role of the microbes that make the shark suitable for human consumption. Also evaluate whether it is possible to shorten the reaction time and understand what effect different handling of the raw material at the beginning of the reaction can have on the final product.
Snorri Páll Ólason worked on the project in his master's program together with other Matís staff.
The cleaning process is actually both a preservation and a detoxification process, where chemical compounds that contain ammonia and are thought to contribute to the toxic effects of an unharmed shark are transformed by microbial enzymes. These chemical compounds that are found in large quantities in fresh shark are on the one hand urea which is broken down into ammonia and on the other hand Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) which is reduced to Trimethylamine (TMA) and Dimethylamine (DMA). After freezing, the shark is left to hang in open drying huts called shelves for several weeks or months. In the project, comparative measurements were made on the effectiveness of a fresh shark on the one hand and on a shark that had been frozen and thawed before being frozen. The shark in the study was worked for 13 weeks, at which point it was considered ready for consumption.
Shark on the rocks
The shark was sampled weekly during the curing period and every other week during the drying period. Chemical and microbiological measurements were made on all samples, but at the same time a sensory evaluation was carried out on the shark samples when they were considered suitable for consumption, i.e. during drying. The chemical measurements measured TMAO, TMA, DMA, acid and water content of the shark. In the microbial measurements, both cultures were carried out on agar plates, but also measurements with molecular biological methods (16S rRNA sequencing), which provide additional possibilities to assess the amount and analyze the diversity of the bacteria involved in the shark's digestion.
The project demonstrated for the first time which bacteria are present and to what extent over the entire course of action. It is thanks to these bacteria that shark action has played a part in keeping Icelanders alive throughout the centuries. The results of the project indicate that the curing process could be shortened, as the substance TMAO is destroyed in 5 weeks, but the shark is often cured considerably longer. It would also be possible to improve the process or control it with synthetic microbial cultures.
The chemical measurements demonstrated that TMAO decreased below the detection limit after five weeks of freezing, while at the same time the acidity in the shark increased. At the same time, the concentration of the constituents TMA and DMA increased. Furthermore, the project revealed that a diverse microflora is involved in the digestion of a shark. Microbial counts on culture bowls showed that the growth of the total number of microorganisms and known spoilage bacteria was high during the first weeks of cooling, but then decreased rapidly and remained so through the final step of drying.
Molecular biological analysis on the shark bites revealed gradual changes in the composition of the bacterial flora during curing, which divided the curing process into three distinct phases, but large changes in the composition of the bacterial flora stopped during drying. Molecular biological methods have not been used before to evaluate the entire biological process of a shark, as far as is known, but they give a good picture of the diversity of the microflora in the shark bites.
There was a clear difference in the composition of the initial microflora depending on whether the raw material was fresh or concentrated. As the freezing progressed, however, the composition became comparable in fresh and thawed shark. A relationship was found between high concentrations of TMAO and the bacterial genera Photobacterium and Pseudoalteromonas in the initial phase of purification and in addition a relationship was found between a high concentration of TMA/DMA and the bacterial genera Atopotypes, Pseudomonas and Tissierella in the final phase of cooling.
The shark cut for the study.
The future of shark research.
This project, Hákarlsverkun, is now finished, but the work on it raised all kinds of questions that would be nice to find answers to with further research. For example, the researchers say that approx. one out of four sharks does not work correctly, but the product is damaged, despite the fact that all processes are exactly the same for all the raw materials. This could have something to do with the microflora, but hopefully Matís future research in collaboration with shark producers will reveal it.
Podcast show
Snorri Páll Ólason worked on this project in his master's program together with other Matís staff, but he was an interviewee in Matvælin, Matís' podcast program about research and innovation in food production. In the episode, he tells about the project and what it involved in a lively and entertaining way. Listen to the podcast here: A wounded shark, the national right of Icelanders?
Snorri Páll Ólason is an interviewer in Matvælin this time. He discusses his master's project, Hákarlsverkun, which was done in collaboration with Bjarnarhöfn tourism, the largest producer of best shark in Iceland with a grant from the Food Fund.
The tradition of shark eating in Iceland is rich and can be traced back centuries. Despite this, very few scientific studies have been conducted to examine or improve the mechanism of action of these foods. Snorri, together with several of Matís' staff, worked on improvements there.
The conversation with Snorra is light and fun as he goes over, for example, the culture surrounding shark eating, the science behind the fact that working on sharks is necessary since the process of curing is both a preservation method and a detoxification process, persistent myths about curing and much more.
Listen to the full episode on all major podcast stations or in the player below:
Shark is a unique traditional Icelandic product and is obtained by fermenting and drying Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus). However, little is known about the chemical and microbial changes occurring during the process. In this small-scale industrial study, fresh and frozen shark meat was fermented for eight and seven weeks, respectively, and then dried for five weeks. During the fermentation, trimethylamineN-oxide levels decreased to below the limit of detection within five weeks and pH increased from about 6 to 9. Simultaneously, trimethylamine and dimethylamine levels increased significantly. Totally viable plate counts, and specific spoilage organisms increased during the first weeks of the fermentation period but decreased during drying. Culture-independent analyzes (16S rRNA) revealed gradual shifts in the bacterial community structure as fermentation progressed, dividing the fermentation process into three distinct phases but stayed rather similar throughout the drying process. During the first three weeks of fermentation, Photobacterium was dominant in the fresh group, compared to Pseudoalteromonas in the frozen group. However, as the fermentation progressed, the groups became more alike Atopotypes, Pseudomonas and Tissierella being dominant. The PCA analysis done on the chemical variables and 16S rRNA analysis variables confirmed the correlation between high concentrations of TMAO and Pseudoalteromonas, and Photobacterium at the initial fermentation phase. During the final fermentation phase, correlation was detected between high concentrations of TMA/DMA and Atopotypes, Pseudomonas and Tissierella. The results indicate the possibility of shortening the fermentation period and it is suggested that the microbial community can potentially be standardized with starter cultures to gain an optimal fermentation procedure.
