Category: News

Prokaria, Matís' biotechnology department (Matvælarannsókir Íslands) has succeeded in developing a method that can be used for genetic analysis of cod. Such a method is extremely important for the traceability of offspring to parents in breeding work, due to stock analyzes in stock ecology research, source analyzes or due to possible product defects. Prokaria is working to protect the discovery with a patent.

The aim of the project was to develop a new genetic marker for cod that could be put together in a so-called genetic marker set. It is considered necessary to have about 10 genetic markers in parental analyzes and preferably about 20 genetic markers in stock and source analyzes. In the project, part of the cod's genome was sequenced. Areas with a special enrichment method developed by Prokaria were selected.

Matís' biotechnology department developed two diagnostic kits, one with 9 genetic markers and the other with 10 genetic markers, which have been tested on a number of cod samples. The MRI's geneticists have also conducted experiments and analyzes on the two genetic markers that are ready.

In addition, there are many useful genetic markers in Matís that are not included in the diagnostic kit but can be used as individual genetic markers. Matís has already started utilizing the diagnostic kits and many companies, Icelandic and foreign, have taken advantage of the services that the company offers in cod genetic analysis. In addition to creating practical equipment for research on cod, the project has provided training for students at the upper secondary level and a scientific article has been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Demands for sustainability in the fisheries sector are constantly increasing, and it is therefore important that Icelandic companies take an active part in development in this field. At Matís' international workshop, which took place in Sauðárkrókur, it was stated that there are many opportunities for sustainable development in the fisheries sector, but it is necessary for Icelanders to remain vigilant so that they have the opportunity to be at the forefront of discussions on such issues internationally.

Sustainable development is the development that enables people to meet their needs without reducing the possibilities for future generations to do the same. At an international working meeting of Matís (Matvælarannsóknir Íslands) and Faroese and Icelandic representatives related to the fisheries sector, a broad consensus was reached on the importance of maintaining sustainability in terms of fishing, processing and transport in foreign markets.

The workshop is part of a West Nordic project, led by Matís, called "Sustainable Food Information". The project aims to make it easier for companies in the food industry, such as fisheries companies, to demonstrate sustainability. Particular attention is paid to the traceability of marine products, from the target to the consumer, which is the basis for demonstrating sustainable fishing.

"Demands for sustainability in the fisheries sector and traceability are constantly increasing, not least abroad," says Sveinn Margeirsson, department manager at Matís. "Awareness of environmental issues has increased and the market's demands are that it can be demonstrated that marine products are produced without over-exploiting resources and that ways are sought to minimize pollution," says Sveinn.

"Icelanders are in many ways well positioned and have an advantage over many other nations when it comes to traceability. The next step is to use traceability to demonstrate sustainability in the fisheries sector. That is why it is important for Icelanders to remain vigilant and ensure that they remain at the forefront of discussions on such issues in the future. "

Upper picture: Gísli Svan Einarsson, director of Versins-Vísindagarður in Skagafjörður, Sveinn Margeirsson, Matís, and Ólavur Gregersen, project manager of Sustainable Food Information.

As many of Matís' "good friends" know, there is currently a survey of attitudes towards health claims on food in which around 2500 people are participating. Due to a software glitch, the website where participants are supposed to go to answer questions is temporarily down, but it is hoped that the website will be up and running in the next 1-2 days.

About the survey.
A similar survey is conducted simultaneously by consumers in all the Nordic countries and the purpose is to examine consumers' attitudes towards health claims and how they understand different health claims. The results of the survey will be presented to stakeholders in all countries, as well as food companies, consumer organizations and the authorities.

There is currently a European regulation on health claims in food and the results of the survey will be used to influence its content.
There is a growing trend for food to be labeled with so-called health claims. There may be claims about the nutritional content of foods such as low fat, cholesterol free, low in calories and about the effect of consuming individual foods on consumer health for example lowering cholesterol, protecting dental health and so on.

Participants NOTE! Please be patient and do not lose heart over this failure - Try again in 1-2 days!

There are ever-increasing demands that seafood sellers base their fishing on sustainability, says Óli Kristján Ármannsson's article in the latest The market, the business paper of Fréttablaðið. There is an interview with Svein Margeirsson, department manager at Matís, who says that sustainability may be a ticket to more expensive retail chains abroad. This is especially important for the fishing industry when a possible reduction in cod fishing is imminent.

A conference on sustainability in the fishing industry will take place at Sauðárkrók on June 14. It is part of a West Nordic project called "Sustainable Food Information" and its aim is to make it easier for companies in the food industry, such as fishing companies, to demonstrate sustainability in fishing, processing and sales. The Food Research Institute of Iceland (Matís) is in charge of organizing the conference, says the Markadarsin article.

"There, people say that sustainability has become a particularly important concept in the fishing industry in light of the ever-increasing demands of sellers, retail chains and consumers that the ocean's resources are not harmed and that pollution during fishing, processing and transportation of seafood is kept to a minimum. In order to demonstrate sustainability, however, it is necessary to be able to trace the process that takes place in the food industry," says the Markadarin article.

Icelanders are at the forefront

Sveinn Margeirsson, head of the department in the field called new technology and markets at Matís ohf., says that a lot of good work has been done in this regard in this country. "We're really great at traceability here," he says, but by being able to trace the process, you get detailed information about the product. Sellers who have a "quality product" are said to be better able to differentiate themselves from others on the market."

Then Sveinn says: "Firstly, it's about the consumer being able to know where the product comes from, but that's the aspect that most people know, and secondly, about being able to track exactly which way the product went." If we take the example of lamb meat, the path from the farmer to the consumer goes through slaughter, meat processing, distribution and trade." Sveinn says Icelanders are generally ahead in the food industry in terms of traceability "and very ahead in the fishing industry internationally".

Matís (Matvælarannsóknir Íslands) is working on projects that will benefit Icelandic exporters in meeting Tesco's requirements for carbon dioxide labeling of food.

Tesco, one of the UK's largest retail chains, intends to carbon label all products sold in the chain's stores in order to enable consumers to obtain information on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that have accompanied the product's production, transport to the store and sales. This is Tesco's program aimed at responding to climate change.

Sveinn Margeirsson, department manager at Matís, says that the discussion on carbon dioxide labeling of food is part of the discussion on sustainable development. "Matís manages a West Nordic project called 'Sustainable Food Information', which aims to make it easier for companies in the food industry, such as fisheries companies, to demonstrate sustainability in fishing, processing and sales. Participants in the project will meet in Iceland on 14 June with Icelandic and Faroese fisheries companies, where the topic of discussion is the opportunities that lie in sustainable development for the Icelandic fisheries. "

Sustainable development important for the Icelandic food industry

"Sellers and consumers demand that it can be demonstrated that the production of marine products is in such a way that fish stocks are not depleted or that large emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) accompany the production. The Tesco program is simply one of many examples of developments in this area. It is my opinion that sustainable development will be one of the key issues for the Icelandic food industry in the future, as we have more projects in this field in the pipeline. ”

Sveinn says that in this connection it is important to be able to show how the product has gone through the value chain, otherwise it is not possible to say how much the "life cycle" of the product has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

"It's not enough to focus on one link in the value chain. In the UK today, there is considerable debate about carbon dioxide emissions from the transport of organically grown fruit from distant parts of the world. Are the environmental effects of such foods positive or negative? One way to compare foods in this regard is the so-called life cycle analysis (LCA). In order to be able to apply it, it is necessary to be able to trace the product's path through the value chain, where Icelandic fisheries companies are well positioned. One of the practical possibilities of this strong position is to be able to demonstrate the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of the products. "

There is great interest in an international workshop on sustainability in the fisheries sector, which will take place in Sauðárkrókur on 14 June. About 20 people from companies in the Faroe Islands are expected to come to Iceland in connection with the workshop. The workshop is part of a West Nordic project called "Sustainable Food Information", which aims to make it easier for companies in the food industry, such as fisheries companies, to demonstrate sustainability in fishing, processing and sales.

Consumers abroad are increasingly demanding that seafood sellers base their fishing on sustainability; that marine resources are not depleted and that pollution from fishing, processing and transport of marine products is kept to a minimum. Products based on sustainability are therefore very important for manufacturers in the future because they are tickets to high-quality or expensive retail chains abroad.

Great emphasis is also placed on traceability in the discussion on sustainability in the fishing industry. Traceability provides accurate information about the product and sellers who have a quality product can differentiate themselves better from others in the market. Traceability is therefore an important link in the eco-labeling of marine products.

More about the workshop here.

Crowds have made their way to the Festival of the Sea on the central bank in Reykjavík this weekend. There, companies and institutions present their activities and services to guests. Among the things on offer in the middle bank is a so-called sensory assessment at Matís (Matvælarannsóknir Íslands) where guests are given the opportunity to guess the smell from scented glasses and look at different old fish, on the one hand new and then on the other hand a few days old, with regard to freshness, texture and smell.

Sensory evaluation is an essential part of food quality control. In sensory evaluation, the human senses, i.e. visual, olfactory, taste, hearing and touch senses used to assess food quality. Sensory evaluation is not only used in food but also in connection with the development of perfumes, hygiene products and in the automotive industry, for example.

The festival of the sea ends this afternoon, Sunday.

Photo: Guests inspect fish of different ages at Matís' booth at Hátíð hafsins.

A few days ago, a small group of employees from Lýsir hf. on a course in sensory assessment at Matís. The aim of the course was to train the employees in methods for assessing the quality of fish oil.

The course covered sensory assessment, basic flavors and sensory assessment methods, and the staff also received practical training in the use of methods for assessing the smell and taste of fish oil.
Sensory evaluation is a systematic evaluation of the smell, taste, appearance and texture of food.

Sensory Evaluation is a necessary part of quality control. In sensory evaluation, the human senses, i.e. visual, olfactory, taste, hearing and touch senses used to assess food quality. Sensory evaluation in the Icelandic food industry has for a long time been conducted in an organized manner, especially as part of quality control.

For many years, Matís has assisted companies in setting up sensory evaluation, provided advice in sensory evaluation and carried out shelf life research in cases where sensory evaluation is a very important factor.

Those companies that are interested in using this Matís service are advised to contact Emilía Marteinsdóttir by phone: 422 5032 or by e-mail emilia.martinsdottir@matis.is

Iceland is a member of the European Network of Excellence on the chemical content of food and means of disseminating information through databases and the Internet. The project is called EuroFIR and is part of the EU's 6th Framework Program. Matís manages the Icelandic part of the project and now there is a two-day meeting in the project, which is held at Matís' premises on Skúlagata 4. The meeting discusses bioactive substances in food, but work is being done on a special European database on these substances.

Hannes Hafsteinsson, project manager at Matís, will take care of this part of the project and chair the meeting.

The project EuroFIR (European Food Information Resource Network) started in 2005 and ends in 2009 and the participants are 40 institutions from 21 European countries, but the project is supervised by the Institute of Food Research in Norwich in the UK. The aim of the project is to build a comprehensive and accessible database on the ingredients of European foods, in terms of their nutritional value and recent bioactive substances that may have health-promoting effects.

Matvælarannsóknir Keldnaholt (Matra) was originally the Icelandic participant and Matís has now taken on this role. A co-operation network was established in Iceland for the project with the participation of IFL (now Matís), the Laboratory of Nutrition at the University of Iceland, the Public Health Institute, the Environment Agency and Hugsjár ehf. Ólafur Reykdal, Matís, is the project manager of the Icelandic section.

Some of the objectives of the EuroFIR project are:

Harmonization of European databases on the chemical content of foods.
Data globalization.
Increased data quality and Europe will be a world leader in this field.

The importance of the project for Icelanders lies in the following factors:

The project strengthens Icelanders professionally by direct comparison with what is done abroad.
Increased demands will be made on data on the chemical content of food and this will benefit users (consumers, industries, researchers, schools, etc.). Working with food traditions and bioactive substances can shed light on the uniqueness of Icelandic food. Relations with foreign researchers and institutions are important.
The project is a good example of the need for domestic parties to join forces to participate in large foreign projects.

Iceland participates in work on six sub-projects of the EuroFIR project:

1. Development, coordination and networking of databases on the chemical content of foods.

Methods for evaluating the composition of processed foods.

3. Composition and production of traditional foods

4. Evaluation of bioactive material data.

The Icelandic database on the chemical content of food (ÍSGEM) was a key factor when working on getting into the project. The development of the database began at the Agricultural Research Institute in 1987, but is now stored at Matís.

Further information on the EuroFIR project can be obtained from Ólafur Reykdal and Hannes Hafsteinsson.EuroFIR website

Saltfish processing has undergone major changes in recent years. Such an effect was previously based on simple static salting, but new methods of action have resulted in producers up to a 15% increase in total utilization, says an article by Krístinar Þórarinsdóttir and Sigurjón Arason at Matís (Matvælarannsóknir Íslands).

It was at the turn of the century in 1800 that Icelanders sent out saltfish cargo on their own for the first time. Since then, Iceland's salted fish processing has gradually increased, and at the beginning of the 21st century, salted fish is still an important export product, although new and changed storage methods have emerged in the meantime.

In this connection, it can be mentioned that the total value of salted fish was ISK 17.3 billion, or about 16.5% of the total export value of marine products in 2006. Wet-processed salted fish from cod yielded the largest export value, amounting to ISK 11.4 billion. The production value of salted and hardened products increased by 17.5% and the volume by 1.4%.

You can read the whole article here.