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%.
A working meeting of Icelandic and Faroese parties on sustainability in the fishing industry will take place at Sauðárkrók on June 14. The meeting 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 fishing companies, to demonstrate sustainability in fishing, processing and sales.
Matvælarannsóknir Íslands (Matís) is responsible for organizing the meeting, which is only intended for parties in the fisheries sector.
Sustainability has become a particularly important concept in the fisheries sector in light of the ever-increasing demands of sellers, retail chains and consumers not to waste marine resources. 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 eco-labeling seafood. More about the conference here.
The workshop takes place in Verin Vísindagörður in Sauðárkrókur.
In a new Matís report, called The value and safety of Icelandic seafood. Risk composition and risk ranking discusses basic work on risk assessment for cod, shrimp, redfish, haddock, halibut, herring, saithe and kúfisk. These species were mapped in terms of potential risks to their consumption, thus obtaining their risk composition and a semi-quantitative risk assessment performed on them.
The risk assessment used a calculation model that has been developed in Australia and is called Risk Ranger. The risk assessment used data on consumption habits (dosages, frequency, etc.), as well as the frequency and causes of foodborne illness. Thus, the risk associated with the consumption of these marine products was calculated, based on certain assumptions.
The reliability of a risk assessment depends on the data and information used in its implementation. According to the available measurement data and given assumptions, the above-mentioned seafood products are classified in the lowest risk category (level <32) - which means low risk, compared to healthy individuals.
In international food markets, Icelandic seafood has a good reputation for health and safety. However, as concerns about food safety have increased in many parts of the world in recent years, it is necessary for Icelanders to maintain this good reputation through high-quality research.
With so-called supercooling of fish fillets and fillet pieces, it is possible to significantly increase the shelf life of the fillets, improve their quality and get higher prices in foreign fish markets, according to Morgunblaðið today, 11 May. There is a discussion with Sigurjón Arason, department manager at Matís, about the benefits of supercooling. Matís has worked on the development of such a method with fish processing and the results are impressive, according to Morgunblaðið.
Sigurjón says that with supercooling, the temperature is kept well below zero degrees, as low as possible without the ice crystals that form in the fish flesh starting to damage themselves and reduce the quality of the fillets. "This is how we lower the temperature to minus 1 to minus 1.5 degrees," says Sigurjón.
He says: “Today, fish processing and the export of fish is nothing but the export of knowledge. To combine such knowledge, as we do, is the export of knowledge. To always be able to say that fish at this time of year, and of this or that fishing area, is not good enough to be exported as fresh fillets, is of course nothing more than knowledge. The handling on board the ships and the processing method on land is nothing but knowledge. Therefore, it can be said that the fishing industry has become a very technological knowledge industry today, "says Sigurjón in a conversation with Hjört Gíslason, journalist of Morgunblaðið.
Annual General Meeting of Matís ohf. for 2006 was held on Tuesday, May 8, in accordance with the law. of the company This was a meeting due to the preparation period on 14 September. until the end of the year when preparations were made for the establishment of Matís, but the company began operations on 1 January 2007.
The company's board was re-elected for one year and Friðrik Friðriksson is the chairman of the board. Others on the board are:
The report is entitled Characterization of cod myosin aggregates using static and dynamic light scattering and discusses research conducted on Matís on myosin from cod.
Myosin is one of the main building blocks of muscle, both terrestrial and marine. If cross-sectional muscle cells are examined under a microscope, some kind of streak or band can be seen inside the cells. These ligaments mainly contain so-called contraction proteins that make muscle contraction possible. The major contractile proteins are myosin and actin. In the muscle, the molecules of each protein are wrapped in strands, the myosin strands are much thicker and are therefore called the thick strands. The actin filaments, or thin filaments, have evenly distributed terminals for myosin. Myosin and actin are therefore linked in the muscle. When the muscle dissolves, however, this over-organized complex of proteins is disrupted, and actin and myosin can be separated.
Mammalian myosin has been extensively studied, but less frequently in fish. One possible reason is that fish myosin is more unstable than, for example, mammalian myosin. However, it is worth examining its behavior in aqueous solutions, considering that it is probably the main driving force behind the formation of protein gels such as surimi and related foods.
The growth rate of cod in aquaculture can be increased using a natural method, according to results from the European project CODLIGHT-TECH, which is led by scientists at Matvælarannsóknir Íslands (Matís). The results indicate that it is possible to encourage growth and slow down the puberty of cod in aquaculture. These results are innovative and important in the development of cod farming in the world, but they can contribute to shorter farming times, improved feed utilization and more efficient cod farming.
Furthermore, it can be said that the results are interesting because energy prices are low in Iceland and therefore this is a real option for Icelandic farmers.
The research is a joint project of Matís, Hraðfrystihús Gunnvarar and Álfsfell in Ísafjörður, Stirling University and Johnson Seafarms in Scotland, Intravision Group, the Marine Research Institute in Bergen and Fjord Marin in Norway and the Agricultural University of Lund in Sweden. In addition, Vaki DNG participates in the project.
Dr. Þorleifur Ágústsson, project manager at Matís, says that it is very important to be able to prevent sexual maturation in cod in farming. When a cod reaches sexual maturity, it stops growing so that the rearing period is extended with associated costs for the farmer.
It is also known that cod spawn in sea cages and therefore it can be considered that fertilized eggs are released into the environment, but it should be noted that no negative mixing of genetic material has been shown and such research is still in its infancy. This is a very important step towards making fire an environmentally friendly industry with improved feed utilization, which means that less feed falls to the bottom under pens. "In parallel with this research, Matís and partners are working on extensive research into the environmental impact of aquaculture with the aim of increasing the sustainability of cod farming, which means that the resource is not wasted," says Dr. Þorleifur Ágústsson.
"Following the debate in Europe on aquaculture, it is clear that cod farming is generally considered to be the next major aquaculture industry after salmon farming. It is predicted that by 2010 European nations' production of farmed cod will reach around 175,000 tonnes, with a market value of around EUR 880 million. Therefore, producers place great emphasis on defining and solving the problems that can affect the development of the industry, but one of those problems is the sexual maturity of farmed cod, "says Þorleifur.
