Category: News

On the first of February, a new research project was launched, which is partly funded by the 7th Research Program of the European Union.

The title of the project in English is "Total Diet Study Exposure" which is translated into Icelandic as "A study of the total consumption of contaminants from food". Matís manages one of the 11 projects in the project and participates in a total of five projects

The project will develop methods to estimate how much people get from unwanted contaminants from food as they are on consumers' tables. The methods will then be used to measure how much people get from food contaminants in several European countries, including Iceland.

This project provides an excellent opportunity for coordinated research on the consumption of foreign substances in Iceland and in several other European countries. Matís conducts research on foreign substances and food safety. The project will be important to strengthen this area and promote increased food security in Iceland. The aim of the project is to conduct coordinated research on the consumption of undesirable contaminants in food in Europe.

In order to carry out harmonized research, the methods used for food sampling, measurement of contaminants in food, quality assessment of data, etc. must be harmonized. The intention is to test different methods that have been used in Europe and to define the best procedures for the research. It will also summarize which contaminants and foods are most important in assessing the total consumption of undesirable substances in the diet of Europeans, but such information is a key factor in making a risk assessment for the consumption of these substances and assessing their impact on human health.

The study of the total consumption of contaminants allows us to get a real estimate of how much we are exposed to unwanted contaminants such as heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, fungal toxins and other contaminants from food as we eat them, ie fried, boiled, grilled, smoked, smoked, smoked. .

Key information for the project:
Matís total project cost: € 631,169, of which EU grant: € 497,997
Total grant amount of the EU project: € 5,967,951
Number of participants: 26 from 18 different countries

Further information: Helga Gunnlaugsdóttir

The Future Days of the Universities 2012 will be held on February 1 in Sólinn at Reykjavík University between 11-16

As before, high participation among students can be expected this year. Framadagar is therefore an ideal platform for companies to reach the future workforce of the nation by introducing themselves and their activities and thus gain a certain advantage over competitors in the race for the most qualified staff.

As usual, Matís will have a large booth and will present his activities throughout the day. Framadaga brochure 2012 can be found on the Framadaga website, www.aiesec.is/framadagar, but there are some fun commercials from Matís.

Further information can be found at www.aiesec.is/framadagar and with Jón Haukur Arnarson, jon.h.arnarson@matis.is or Steinar B. Aðalbjörnsson, steinar.b.adalbjornsson@matis.is.

About Framadaga

Framadagar is an annual event in university life where the 35 main companies in the country present their activities to university students. At Framadögur, each company will have a booth where you can get information about the company and get to know its employees. A number of mini-lectures will be held during the day, teachers from UI and RU will compete in a quiz and various other fun things!

The goal of Framadaga is for university students to get to know companies and thereby increase the chances of summer work, future work or project work for companies. At the same time, the company gets to know potential employees, whether they are summer employees or future employees. A real date for students and companies.

The bus run by Framadaga Háskólinn will run between UI and RU from 10: 45-16: 15 and will be available to everyone and there is no charge during this time.

Matís wants to hire a cook to work in the staff canteen at Vínlandsleið 12 in Reykjavík.

Area of work

The job involves working in parallel with Matís' cooking to oversee the canteen, which serves breakfast and lunch that is cooked from scratch. Matís places great emphasis on the production of varied, fresh and healthy dishes for staff and guests, but at Matís' headquarters in Reykjavík there are approx. 100 people. Working hours are 8:00 - 14:30.

Qualification requirements

• Education in the field of cooking and / or very good knowledge of diverse cuisine
• Experience of cooking in a large kitchen / canteen
• Neatness and punctuality
• Initiative and independence in working methods
• Agility in human relations
• Ambition to succeed at work
• Innovation and willingness to develop in work

For further information, please contact Jón H. Arnarson, Human Resources Manager, tel. 422-5000, e-mail: jon.h.arnarson@matis.is 

The application deadline is August 31, 2014.

Application processing:
All applications are treated as confidential. All applications for advertised jobs will be answered once the job has been hired. General applications are answered within 7 days and are stored for six months. Applicants are asked to resubmit general applications after six months if they wish to remain on the register.

In mid-September. was the web magazine Kjötbókin, www.kjotbokin.is, formally opened, when the first chapter on lamb was made accessible.

The meat book is based on the Icelandic meat book from 1994, where parts of the meat carcasses are listed with descriptions of the type of meat in question; bone structure and muscle name. Now another chapter is ready, but it is about horsemeat. The web magazine is a collaborative project between Matís and the agricultural associations, graphic design was done by PORThönnun, the programming was done by Einar Birgir Einarsson and photos were taken by Odd Stefán Þórisson.

The project manager of the web-based Meat Book is Óli Þór Hilmarsson. He says that its goal is to gather information in one place about the names of muscles and how they are cut, and that there will be connections to recipe websites, utilization figures, published reports, recordings, book chapters and articles related to the type of meat in question. That is to say, that there will be everything you need to know about meat in one place and that the project is under its working title: "Information service about Icelandic meat".

Óli Þór says that in Iceland there are certain prejudices against horsemeat. "It is clear that there is always some demand, at least for foal meat, but the supply is not great. The nations we look up to in terms of cuisine, such as Italy, Spain and France, are big on horsemeat and use it in a variety of ways. I think it's only a matter of time before we Icelanders accept the horsemeat and go to see all kinds of horsemeat products, including sausages. According to a new survey by Matís, which was conducted last summer, consumption of horsemeat is insignificant in Iceland, or about 10 times a year among Icelandic men and five times among women. Horse meat is extremely tender meat and the utilization compared to bones is good. The main thing is that the fat can be a nuisance; both that sometimes it is full of her and then she has to crave if she gets too old. Horses are monogamous like pigs and therefore do not need time for fattening like bulls and lambs. Therefore, it should be easy in modern meat processing to prevent the development of horsemeat. "

Óli says that Icelandic horsemeat is fully comparable to horsemeat in Europe. "This is what meat buyers in Italy told us during the export there. The fatty acid composition of Icelandic horsemeat is much healthier than European horsemeat, but the main thing was that Italians complained about the small size of carcasses compared to other breeds of horses. "

Work has begun on the chapter on beef, but then the white meat takes over. It is estimated that it will take about two months to complete each chapter.

For more information Óli Þór Hilmarsson and Gunnþórunn Einarsdóttir.

^{This article is taken from Bændablaðið from 19 January. (http://bondi.is/lisalib/getfile.aspx?itemid=5315).}

Cadmium has always been present in nature, but in many countries it is feared that it is increasingly found in food as an industrial contaminant and also because many types of synthetic phosphate fertilizers contain some cadmium.

The explanation is that phosphate for fertilizer production contains different amounts of cadmium from nature. The Nordic countries have aimed to reduce the release of cadmium into the environment as much as possible. The use of cadmium in industry has decreased and maximum levels for cadmium in synthetic fertilizers have been set. There is currently a debate within the European Union on maximum levels for cadmium in fertilizers. Opinions are divided as the countries of Southern Europe make less demands than the Nordic countries.

Cadmium is one of the most toxic metals to humans and animals. The gap between the amount of cadmium that is harmless to humans and that which is harmful to health is not wide. The long-term effects of too much cadmium in the diet can be kidney damage. In recent years, it has been found that damage can occur due to less cadmium than previously thought (Alfvén et al. 1997).

More on this topic here.

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 partners 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 cultivation. Hugrún Lísa Heimisdóttir is also the occasion for her project "Protein analysis of the digestive tract of cod liver" which is done 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.