Category: News

Elementary school children solve climate problems in a LEGO design competition. Up to 100 kids aged 10-15 have registered to play in the LEGO design competition for primary school children, First Lego League, which will be held tomorrow, Saturday 12 November, at Háskólatorg.

The aim of the competition is to arouse primary school students' interest in science and technology as well as to build their self-confidence, leadership skills and life skills. Each year, the competition is chosen a specific theme that is high on the agenda in the world. This year the theme will be food security. Ólafur Ögmundarson is Matís' representative on the jury and does well as he knows the value and transport chain of food very well.

It can be said that the competition consists of five different projects. In the first task, the contestants build a robot from a computer-controlled LEGO-i that is programmed to solve a specific puzzle. Second, competitors must conduct a scientific study of a particular subject. This time the project is about food factor and the participants have to move a certain product from one place to another in the most efficient way. Thirdly, the contestants keep a detailed diary of preparations for the competition and fourthly, they are to present the original entertainment. Fifth, the teams have to explain how they programmed their robot, which tests the participants' knowledge of their own equipment.

Nine teams from the same number of schools across the country have registered for the game and there are between 6-10 people in each team along with one adult team manager. All teams were sent a track and competition shirt eight weeks before the competition to prepare.

The program of the competition starts at 9 on Saturday morning and it is expected that the winners will be crowned at 15. The winning team has the opportunity to compete in the European First Lego League. In addition to prizes for winning the competition, prizes are awarded for the best solution in robot design and programming, the best research project, the best diary, the best entertainment and the best team. All participants receive a FLL medal in recognition.

The competition has taken place in this country for the past 6 years and has always attracted a lot of attention. The proportion of people with a vocational and technical education is sometimes used as a measure when examining how well prepared nations are for the future. If the number of people with such an education in Icelandic society is to increase, it is important to increase interest in technology and science among the country's youth. The LEGO design competition is an innovative way to do this.

The School of Engineering and Natural Sciences at the University of Iceland manages the competition and its sponsors are Nýherji, the Icelandic Society of Engineers, the Confederation of Icelandic Industries and Matís.

Everyone is welcome to watch the competition at Háskólatorg.

Further information about the competition is provided by Ingi Rafn Ólafsson, Marketing and Promotion Director of the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, ingirafn@hi.is and GSM: 772-1400.

_{News taken from the website of the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences at the University of Iceland.}

Recently, the Tanzanian government and Matís signed a co-operation agreement on a project worth around ISK 40 million related to research on fish, fish processing and an assessment of the social status of fishing communities on Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania.

This is a collaborative project between Matís, VJI consultancy, Ráðgarður ship consultancy and GOCH engineering company in Tanzania. The project is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.

For further information Oddur Már Gunnarsson at Matís.

Matís is a regular participant in development cooperation projects around the world. This co-operation contributes, for example, to the development of knowledge in the food industry in developing countries through Matís' co-operation with the Icelandic Development Cooperation Agency, the United Nations University and others working on development co-operation. For example, Matís has been to Kenya and held courses for fisheries inspectors under the auspices of the United Nations University School of Fisheries and in Mozambique, where Matís staff have carried out audits of a laboratory in Maputo and assisted and guided the laboratory's quality team in preparing for accreditation. Mozambique in the development of official quality control in the fisheries sector. Working on the quality issues of the laboratories in Maputo, Beira and Quelimane is part of that collaboration.

Knowledge and experience of Matís' quality system is used to finalize procedures and documents belonging to quality systems, and it is then decided what steps are necessary to achieve the ultimate goal, which is to apply for accreditation.

At the end of 2011, the exemption votes that Icelanders have from the regulation in food legislation in the European Economic Area (EEA) expire. In recent months, certain concepts about food have been discussed and it is important that these terms are used correctly to prevent misunderstandings.

These terms are on the one hand food safety and on the other hand food safety.

• Food Safety (Food safety) discusses how safe foods are for consumption and whether they cause harm to the health of consumers
• Food security (Food security) deals with access to food and the supply of healthy and safe food

Further information on the above concepts and on Matís 'role in the implementation of new EEA food legislation in Iceland is provided by Sveinn Margeirsson, Matís' CEO, sveinnm@matis.is.

Í Bændablaðið 27 October sl. (p. 14) is a press release on the implementation of EEA food legislation in Iceland.

The main objective of the project Simulation of cooling processes - thermodynamic simulation of processing and transport processes, which began in June 2008, was to improve procedures and equipment for processing and transport of marine products.

Process analysis, experiments and computerized thermal and hydrological models were used to achieve the set goals. The consequences of improved temperature control in processing and transport processes are increased quality, stability and safety, which at the same time increase the value of the product. Partners in the project were Matís, the University of Iceland, Promens Tempra, Eimskip Ísland, Samherji, Brim (ÚA), Festi and Eskja.

Examples of the project's products are heat transfer models of fresh fish products in a foam box, which make it possible to predict fish temperatures based on environmental temperature history. Heat transfer models were used to redesign the Promens Tempra 3, 5 and 7 kg foam boxes with the minimum target fish temperature minimization under the target heat load.

Experiments confirmed the superiority of the new boxes over traditional box types, both in terms of temperature control and product quality under heat load. The new round foam boxes have replaced older models of Promens Tempra foam boxes (see Figure 1) and have thus increased the competitiveness of Icelandic fresh fish products, especially those transported by air.

The results of another experiment show that the shelf life of fresh fish fillets in corner boxes of whole pallets in the air transport chain can be about 1 - 1.5 days shorter than fillets in boxes in the middle of the pallet stack. Heat distribution in different cooling chains was mapped and special emphasis was placed on pre-cooling fillets for packing and heat distribution in different types of cooling containers with different loading patterns. The results of the project have not only benefited air transport chains but have also further contributed to increased opportunities for the safe transport of fresh fish products by ship.

Matís' Matís workshop in Flúðir was discussed in a fun way in the episode Ísland i dag on Stöð 2 recently. Sigrún Ósk Kristjánsdóttir thought that the mushrooms that were being tried to dry there were better than the hygiene in them indicated; they were actually more than just "healthy good" in taste!

The news can be found here.

The stock size of Atlantic salmon has decreased significantly in many places within the species' distribution area. There are many indications that the causes can be traced to increased declines in salmon stocks.

In 2008, a multinational research project, Salsea Merge, was launched, with the main goal of finding an answer to the question of why salmon catches at sea have increased. A database on the genetic composition of salmon in hundreds of salmon stocks was developed. Through genetic analysis and comparison with the database, it is now possible to trace salmon that are caught in the sea to their homelands, but such knowledge is the key to examining how the grazing areas in the Atlantic are handled by salmon stocks.

Little has been known about salmon routes in Icelandic waters. Salmon fishing has been banned since 1932 and salmon is not allowed to be landed, despite the fact that salmon are known to be used as by-catch in various fishing gear. Attempts were made to obtain samples from fishing vessels from 2007 and in exploratory fishing, and 32 samples were collected. In 2010, a new research campaign was launched in collaboration with the Directorate of Fisheries in connection with fishing for mackerel in Icelandic waters, and the campaign has now yielded an additional 175 samples.

The aim of the project was to investigate the age composition, growth and origin of salmon caught in the waters off Iceland. Samples have been analyzed from 2007 to 2010, but their 86% was collected from the mackerel fishery in 2010. Most salmon were found in their second year at sea (78%), but the proportion of salmon that had stayed two years or longer turned out to be 17.5%. Several juvenile salmon were also caught in the first year at sea (4.4%). The freshwater age ranged from 1 to 6 years, and salmon with a two-year freshwater stay were the most common (46.2%), while a three-year freshwater stay was also common (25.3%). The average age of freshwater salmon was 2.4 years.

Most of the salmon were caught within the Icelandic fishing jurisdiction. Most of the samples were caught in the east of the country, but there were also samples of salmon caught in the south and west of the country. Most juvenile salmon were caught west of Snæfellsnes. The origin of salmon was analyzed in 150 samples. Of this number, only 8 samples (5%) were of Icelandic origin. The results indicate that important routes and grazing areas for salmon can be found within the Icelandic fishing jurisdiction.

There are many indications that salmon, especially from the southern part of the distribution area from France to the southern part of Norway with the British Isles, use the sea areas around Iceland as grazing areas during part of their life cycle and could be on their way to known salmon grazing areas in East and West Greenland. of Iceland. Salmon of Icelandic origin proved to be an insignificant part of the samples and it was also a short age - and growth data. Salmon in the samples thus showed much faster growth at the juvenile stage than is the case with Icelandic salmon stocks, as Icelandic salmon stay for the most part 3 -5 years in freshwater before going to sea.

The parties in this project are: Veiðimálastofnun, www.veidimal.is, Directorate of Fisheries, www.fiskistofa.is and Matís.
Project sponsor: The Fisheries Project Fund.

For further information, please contact Kristinn Ólafsson at Matís, kristinn.olafsson@matis.is.

From 28.-30. The WEFTA 2011 conference was held in Gothenburg in September. Researchers from Matís presented the results of their research.

West European Fish Technologists Association or WEFTA (www.wefta.org) conferences are a forum where many of Europe's leading scientists in the field of marine research and utilization come together and compare their books. This conference was the 41st in a row.

Five scientists from Matís spoke at the conference

• Margrét Geirsdóttir, Patricia Y. Hamaguchi, Óli Þór Hilmarsson, Irek Klonowzki and Hörður G. Kristinsson. Surimi seafood from byproducts containing omega-3 fatty acids.
• Kolbrún Sveinsdóttir, Rósa Jónsdóttir, Margrét Geirsdóttir and Emilía Martinsdóttir. Innovative consumer-oriented product development of enriched seafood.
• Minh Van Nguyen, Kristín Anna Þórarinsdóttir, Guðjón Þorkelsson, Ágústa Guðmundsdóttir, Sigurjón Arason and Arnljótur Bjarki Bergsson. Effects of the anti-caking agent potassium ferrocyanide (K₄[Fe (CN)₆]) on lipid oxidation of salted cod (Gadus morhua) during salting, storage and rehydration.
• Patricia Y. Hamaguchi, Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir, Rósa Jónsdóttir and Hörður G. Kristinsson. Comparison of in vitro chemical and cellular based antioxidant assays on bioactive marine peptides.
• Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir, Jón Óskar Jónsson, Patricia Y. Hamaguchi, Halldór Benediktsson, Hörður G. Kristinsson and Rósa Jónsdóttir. Functional ingredients in brown seaweed, Fucus vesiculosus.

In addition, one poster from Matís was presented

• Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir, Hugrún Lísa Heimisdóttir, Jónína Jóhannsdóttir, Patricia Y. Hamaguchi, Arnljótur Bjarki Bergsson, Hörður G. Kristinsson and Steinar Svavarsson. Analysis of the bioactivity of fish protein hydrolysates used as feed enrichment for Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) larvae.

Matís' employee was a co-author in one presentation

• Tómas Hafliðason, Guðrún Ólafsdóttir, Björn Margeirsson and Sigurður Bogason. Simple shelf life prediction models for wireless sensor networks in fish supply chains.

A report has been published from Matís ohf. which is called Undesirable substances in seafood products - results from the Icelandic marine monitoring activities in the year 2010.

The report shows the results of measurements of the amount of undesirable substances, organic and inorganic, in Icelandic seafood in 2010 and is part of a continuous monitoring project funded by the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture and has been ongoing since 2003. In 2010, the following substances were measured in marine products. intended for human consumption as well as products for the fishmeal and flour industries: dioxin, dioxin-like PCBs and pointer PCBs, flame retardants (PBDEs), metals and 12 different types of pesticides (insects and plant toxins). A special effort was made in measurements of flame retardants (PBDE) and metals in 2010 and their concentration was generally low in Icelandic seafood. As in previous years of monitoring, a small amount of undesirable substances in Icelandic seafood was generally measured in 2010 compared to the maximums recognized by European countries. Oil and flour made from blue whiting, however, need to be close to or exceed the permissible limits for certain substances.

The data collected year after year in this project is used to build an increasingly accurate database on the state of Icelandic marine products with regard to pollutants. The report is in English and is available on Matís' website (here) so that it is useful to producers, exporters, the government and others in promoting the safety and wholesomeness of Icelandic fish products.

The results of measurements of fishmeal and fish oil for feed preparation confirm the need to closely monitor the levels of undesirable substances, not least persistent organic pollutants such as dioxins, PCBs and pesticides in these products in the spring. The concentration of the persistent substances depends on the nutritional status of the pelagic fish stocks from which the products are processed and reaches its peak during the spawning season. In addition, the levels of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs as well as individual pesticides stop exceeding the EU's permissible limits. This is especially true for blue whiting products.

The booklet "Recently" has also been publishedValuable facts about Icelandic seafood"But important information from this monitoring project has been compiled in the 10 most valuable fish species that Icelanders catch. The authors of the report are Vordís Baldursdóttir, Natasa Desnica, Þuríður Ragnarsdóttir and Helga Gunnlaugsdóttir. Project manager is Helga Gunnlaugsdóttir.

Do you want to take part in shaping ways to increase the path of local food in the tourism industry?

Conference and seminar at the country hotel Smyrlabjörg in Suðursveit 26.-27. October 2011

How can local food production promote sustainability in tourism?
How should local food be marketed, what requirements should be set?
Is there a measure of sustainability certification that entrepreneurs can work on, what should it be like?

The conference starts on Wednesday 26 October at 9:30 with lectures. A seminar will be held on Thursday 27 October where the following issues will be discussed in focus groups.

• Origin labeling and marketing of regional foods
• Local sustainability, cooperation between individuals, companies and public bodies, certification of sustainability

Working groups submit a report on the current state of affairs and proposals for improvement.

Participation in the conference is free. Participants receive a special offer for accommodation and dinner at Smyrlabjörg. Accommodation with breakfast ISK 5,500 - dinner ISK 2,800. Bus service available from the airport in Hornafjörður to Smyrlabjörg for those arriving by plane (40 min).

The seminar is part of the Food and Sustainable Tourism project, which is one of RANNÍS 'top projects. The project group consists of Matís, Nýsköpunarmiðstöð Íslands, Atvinnuþróunarfélag Suðurlands, Þróunarfélag Austurlands, Samtök sveitarfélag á Vesturlandi, Rannsóknarsetur HÍ á Hornafjörður og Háskóli Íslands (see more about the project below).

Further information about the conference can be found at: www.matis.is and www.nmi.is

Participate in the development of sustainable ways of local food production and tourism!

Registration takes place here: tinna@nmi.is

Draft agenda

Chair of the symposium: Hjalti Þór Vignisson, Mayor of Hornafjörður

Day 1. (9:30-16:00)

Before noon

•  What is sustainability? Regional sustainability in Iceland, what has been done in Iceland and what has it yielded? Can we learn from examples from abroad? What is the current policy of the authorities? Stefán Gíslason, environmental management specialist, Environice.

• Food and sustainable tourism: Sustainability measurements - results of pilot project presented. Dr. Þorvarður Árnason, director, & Johannes T. Welling, project manager, Research Center of the University of Iceland in Hornafjörður

• Regional specialties from a historical, cultural and artistic point of view, product characteristics and design. Lecturer unconfirmed.

• Regional / local labels - the situation today, vision. Laufey Haraldsdóttir, lecturer, Hólar University, Hólar.

• User attitudes / grassroots - short presentations from several parties about their activities and experiences. Erlendur Pálsson from Sólheimar, Laufey Helgadóttir in Smyrlabjörg and Fanney Björg Sveinsdóttir Home Market Store Höfn.  

After noon

• Sustainable future - A vision for Iceland. Presentation of the Converge project. Dr. Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir, President of the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Iceland

• Slow food. A path to sustainable food production? Ari Þorsteinsson, Slow food.

• Sustainability in tourism, Awake. Elías B. Gíslason, Director of the Development Division, Icelandic Tourist Board

• From musculoskeletal system to industry. Perspective on local food and sustainability. Guðmundur Heiðar Gunnarsson, Production Manager, Skinney-Þinganes.

Day 2. (9:30-16:00)

Focus groups discuss the issues of the previous day. More information later.

The Food and Sustainable Tourism project
The Food and Sustainable Tourism project is working to build up local food production in different areas in the West, South and East of Iceland to promote increased sustainability in tourism. The experience from the project will then be used to transfer to other areas in the country. Through an effort to increase innovation and production, systematic efforts will be made to increase the supply and demand for local food within the tourism industry in each area. Emphasis will be placed on the turnover being better passed on to the communities in question, as economic leakage due to food imports into the areas will be reduced. Thus, the economic sustainability of the tourism industry is greatly increased.

The approach looks at new job opportunities in small-scale food production. It is also based on interdisciplinary and dynamic collaboration between interest groups that have already been established in all areas and a team of experts from universities and research institutes. This is done to offset limited access to specialized knowledge in food product development / design in the regions. With this, the social sustainability of the areas is greatly increased, which will further strengthen tourism in the area with new opportunities in the sale of products that give the tourist the opportunity to experience the country and the nation through local food and creative industries.

It is no less important to point out the increased quality of life of the inhabitants of the areas, which now even have limited access to fresh and healthy food. With increased product processing within the regions, environmental sustainability also increases significantly. In this way, all transport routes are greatly shortened, which reduces the food milage of food both in the area as a whole and within tourism. Furthermore, simplification of distribution reduces waste in the process.

Small-scale product production is based on the premise of sustainable development, where limited production is planned in a green way. The value of such production today is based on looking at the consumer as a co-producer. The product is therefore dependent on meeting the consumer's expectations of wholesomeness and good production practices.

The fisheries conference will be held at the Grand Hotel in Reykjavík 13-14. October 2011 and is entitled ,,From opportunities to income generation„. Matís is a participant as usual, where Sveinn Margeirsson, Matís' CEO, will report on new innovation projects in the fisheries sector and their results.

The latest version of the program can be downloaded here. The main innovations from the last Fisheries Conference are the presentation of avant-garde ideas and at the same time the best ideas will receive an award at the conference. There will also be a more successful conference booklet where, among other things, statistical information on the Icelandic fishing industry must be found. The conference will feature 36 presentations and seminars will be as follows:

• Icelandic fisheries
• Market opportunities in Europe
• Advanced in fishing technology
• Market areas of the future
• Product development
• Fisheries and the media
• Opportunities abroad
• The European Union and the Icelandic media
• The ocean cluster in Iceland

At the end, there will be summaries from seminars, panel discussions and presentations of avant-garde ideas and an award ceremony.

Further information can be found on the website of Sjávarútvegsráðstefnan ehf, www.sjavarutvegsradstefnan.is.