Category: News

Yesterday, an excerpt from an IFL article will be published on the Sciencedirect.com website, which will soon be published in the prestigious scientific journal Journal of Food Engineering. The article is called Influencing factors on yield, gaping, bruises and nematodes in cod (Gadus morhua) fillets.  

The article is the first to appear in this forum from the doctoral project of Sveinn Margreirsson, who is the main author of the article. The doctoral project is related to a large project Processing forecast, which started at IFL in 2003 and is scheduled to end next year.

The aim of the project is to investigate the main factors that affect the quality and processing utilization of cod catches, and measurements are made in collaboration with fishing companies. The proportion of cod products that have been processed into frozen and fresh fillets is about 45% of the total catch in the Icelandic fishing jurisdiction. Increased knowledge and understanding of the properties of a raw material that can be linked to the value of the product are therefore very important.

 The authors of the article are, apart from Sveinn, Guðmundur R. Jónsson, Sigurjón Arason and Guðjón Þorkelsson. Guðmundur is a professor at Véla and the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Iceland, while the others are IFL employees. In fact, Sigurjón and Guðjón are also associate professors at H.Í.

Read the article

Many Danes are now following with interest the expedition of the Danish patrol ship Vædderen, which Icelanders know well, as the ship has had regular calls in Iceland in recent years on its way to and from Greenland. The ship is currently on an eight-month scientific expedition, called the Galatha 3 project, where it sails around the earth and various research is done.

The Danish parliament provided DKK 80 million, about ISK 960 million, for the project, mainly to make the necessary improvements and changes to Vædderen before embarking on the expedition, which began in mid-August and is scheduled to end at the end of April 2007. In addition, private parties and research funds have contributed a total of over ISK 1 billion to the various scientific studies that are planned to be carried out during the expedition.

Although only half a month has passed since the expedition began, scientists on board believe they have already made some interesting discoveries. This is what dr. Lone Gram, who works for Danmarks Fiskeriundersögelser (DFU), in an interview with Politiken's website that the expedition has found an interesting microbe at a depth of 30 meters in the sea off the Faroe Islands and that can possibly be used, either in the development of new antibiotics or as a preservative. It is worth mentioning that DFU is a sister institution of IFL and the institutes' researchers have had considerable collaboration in recent years.

According to dr. Gram is this micro-organism "military" i.e. it inhibits growth or simply kills other bacteria it comes in contact with. Dr. Gram says in an interview with Politiken.dk that it is clear that the Faroese bacterium, which she temporarily calls S 191, is therefore interesting and that she is looking forward to cultivating it and researching its type better when she returns to Denmark.   

This trip Vædderen is the third world tour with this format that the Danes are responsible for. The first was taken on the ship Galatheu I in the years 1845-1847, but then most of the research took place on land. From 1950 to 1952, Galatheu II went on a global voyage, exploring the deep water. You can follow the expedition on the web, at politiken.dk

Sources:

Politiken.dk

skip.is

The company Prokaria invited IFL employees to visit the company today to introduce them to the activities that take place at Gylfaflöt in Grafarvogur, but as previously stated on this page, a special company owned by IFL will soon take over Prokaria's genetic and enzyme division.

An announcement of the planned merger was published on IFL's news website earlier this summer, stating that the new company will continue to be called Prokaria, as the company has built up strong research and utilization of natural genetic resources in the field of genetic analysis and enzyme development in recent years. The company has development agreements with large international companies in the food industry such as Nestlé and Roquette.

During today's visit, Guðmundur Hreggviðsson, Prokaria's Director of Research, traced the company's history and reported on the main research that takes place there. Sólveig Pétursdóttir, supervisor of microbiological research from the main research that falls under her field, also talked, and finally Sigríður Hjörleifsdóttir talked about genetic research on behalf of Prokaria.

After the presentation, IFL staff inspected Prokaria's premises and finally accepted light refreshments.

IFL has been actively involved in the education of students at the university level in this country for a long time, for example, BS studies in food science at H.Í. partly to IFL and permanent teachers H.Í. in food processing and engineering have facilities at IFL. Many projects in postgraduate studies in food science, industrial engineering and fisheries sciences are also carried out and funded by IFL. In recent years, several young, foreign researchers have also stayed temporarily for internships here at IFL. One such person, Judith Reichert from Germany, ends her six-month stay at IFL today.

Judith came here last March under the auspices of the European Union's Leonardo Da Vinci Vocational Training Program and her stay at IFL is part of her internship due to a Diploma in Chemical Engineering at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (University of Applied Science) in Dresden, Germany. She will now go on a few days holiday to her home country before heading to Denmark where she will complete her studies at DTU - the University of Copenhagen early next year.

During her stay at IFL, Judith worked on research in connection with Rannís' project Oxidation in fish and microbiological studies in connection with the AVS project Prevention in aquaculture. According to Guðrún Ólafsdóttir, one of Judith's four mentors here at IFL, IFL's experience of this international collaboration is very good, the researchers who have come here have generally proved to be very enthusiastic and good staff and Judith has been no exception. The connections that are formed in this way can be beneficial for both parties in the future, as the scientific community has not been spared from the globalization that has taken place in most areas in recent years.

From 9 to 12 August, a Nordic conference was held in Iceland under the auspices of the Nordic Dietitians' Association, an association of Nordic nutritionists / consultants. Among the speakers at the conference was Emilía Martinsdóttir, head of department at IFL.  

Emilia presented the project Attitudes and fish consumption of young people: Improving the image of seafood, which began in 2005 and is planned to be completed in 2008. The progress of the project has previously been described on this page, as one of the main purposes of the project is education and promotion with the aim of increasing fish consumption, especially among young people.

Emilia's lecture was delivered in English, like other lectures at the conference, and was entitled Improved image of seafood. Consumer's attitudes and fish consumption. You can read Emilia's lecture, as well as other material from the conference, by click here.

From 16.-19. July was the conference The 8^th International Conference on the Application of Magnetic Resonance in Food Science held in Nottingham, England. A conference such as this is held every two years and discusses the main innovations in the use of nuclear magnetic technology (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) in food research at any given time. A young female researcher at IFL, María Guðjónsdóttir, was unexpectedly invited to speak at the conference this time.

It was originally planned that María would attend the conference on behalf of IFL and present two projects on posters: "Low field NMR study of the state of water at superchilling and freezing temperatures and the effect of salt on freezing processes of water in cod mince" and "Low field NMR study on seven dry salting methods of cod (Gadus morhua.) She will send a copy of the posters to the conference organizer in May, as required. 

The aforementioned project, however, attracted special attention and was chosen as one of the four most interesting posters of the conference, and on that occasion María was asked to give a short lecture on the results of the study to conference guests. According to María, this was a pleasant surprise and the lecture exceeded expectations.

María is a chemical and physical engineer (Civ. Ing. Kemiteknik med fysik) by education and studied at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. Her research at IFL focuses on salting, product development, processing properties, water resistance, proteins, light salting.

A further description of the conference can be found at http://www.biopolymersolutions.co.uk/nmr/ .

Due to summer holidays, IFL's office in Reykjavík will be closed from 17 July to 8 August. For more information on direct telephone numbers. - Our office in Reykjavik will be closed from July 17. until August 8. This includes our telephone desk. See information below about direct phone numbers.

Most of IFL's staff will be on summer vacation for the last two weeks in July and the first week in August, including office staff, who will, among other things, staff the switchboard and answer questions. However, not all IFL employees are on holiday during the period in question and you can reach those employees by calling direct phone number the person in question.

Workshop: 530 8623 or 530 8624

Microwave: 530 8602 or 530 8607

Trace element office: 530 8654 or 530 8659

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ENGLISH:
Due to summer vacations our offices in Reykjavik, including our telephone desk, will be closed from July 17. until Aug. 8. It is possible, however, to contact the IFL employees who will not be vacationing during this period directly. Here is our phone directory

IFL's Annual Report 2005, in which the main points of IFL's activities in 2005 are listed, has now been published and is available here on the web as a pdf file. The document is almost 6MB in size, as the report is quite large in interest, almost 50 pages.

As many know, this spring the Althingi passed a law authorizing the government to establish a limited company, called Matvælarannsóknir hf., For the operation of the Fisheries Research Institute, Matvælarannsóknir Keldnaholt, cf. a co-operation agreement between the Institute of Technology and the Agricultural University, and the laboratory of the Environment Institute. Matvælarannsóknir hf. Is expected to start operations on January 1, 2007. IFL's Annual Report 2005 is therefore the last actual annual report that IFL publishes under that name.

Among other things, it is stated in the 2005 Annual Report that IFL's turnover did not decrease between 2004-5, despite much lower special income from service measurements, but as is well known, the decision was made a few years ago that IFL would withdraw for the most part. out of competitive operations, especially in the field of service measurement. This meant, among other things, that three IFL service branches were closed, in Ísafjörður, Akureyri and the Westman Islands. IFL's activities in these places continue, however, with a change of emphasis, with an emphasis on research and innovation.

One of the main reasons why IFL has kept afloat, despite this contraction in service measurements, is that IFL's research revenues have risen sharply, both domestically and abroad. This has happened despite the fact that the Research Fund, formerly known as the Technology Fund, is not as willing to support a practical research project as its predecessor did before. The ACP Research Fund and the Technology Development Fund have also had a generally positive impact on research activities and innovation in the fisheries sector. 

Read the report(pdf file 6MB)

Recently, two IFL staff went to Sri Lanka under the auspices of the International Development Agency (ICEIDA), the United Nations University School of Fisheries (UNU-FTP) and the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) in Sri Lanka. The purpose was to make an assessment of the quality of fishing ports in Sri Lanka and help to improve those issues in connection with the development after the great natural disasters, e.g. December 26, 2004

Sveinn V. Árnason and Birna Guðbjörnsdóttir, specialists in the IFL Research Division, went to Sri Lanka in mid-May and stayed there for two weeks. They are not completely unfamiliar with this kind of work, as they were among the four IFL employees who went to Viet twice a few years ago to assist universities in that country in preparing quality material in the field of quality in the fishing industry.

As is well known, there was a lot of damage to Sri Lanka in the natural disasters in 2004, both human and property damage. About half of the country's fishing vessels were destroyed, ports were damaged and hundreds of thousands of people who had been employed in fishing and processing lost their lives. It was therefore a lot at stake for the locals to get things back on track and preferably better, as soon as possible.

According to Sveinn and Birna, their involvement in the project consists mainly of the preparation of study material for harbor masters and parties in the management system who are involved in harbor matters. The course deals with the state of quality in fishing ports in Sri Lanka and ways to improve the quality of the catch that passes through the ports. They visited fishing ports in Sri Lannka, including Beruwala south of the capital Colombo, where the accompanying photos were taken.

The main problems are the lack of clean water, both for use in port areas and for ice production. There are also various deficiencies regarding hygiene and all handling of the fish, the ice and in fact the entire area that the fish pass through within the harbors. In addition to Birna and Sveinn, Ranjith Edirisinghe, Director,

Post Harvest Division, NARA, Mr. Marcus Mallikage, Ministry of Fisheries and Ms. Induni Kariyawasam (Research Officer), NARA and Marcus studied in Iceland at UNU-FTP in 2001.

Ranjith and Marcus are currently in Iceland and an interview with them in Morgunblaðið today states that about 40% of the catch is wasted after it is caught and therefore it is urgent to improve aspects such as handling and storage.

Pictured here are: Ranjith Edirisinghe, Birna, Sveinn and Marcus Mallikage.

A survey of young people's attitudes towards fish consumption began on 1 June and ended yesterday, 3 July. The survey, which is part of an extensive project that is being worked on at IFL, reached young people aged 18-45 and a participation offer was sent to a random sample of 3,500 people from the National Register at this age and the person in question was invited to participate in an opinion poll on fish consumption. There was good participation in the survey, as there are great prizes on offer for lucky participants.

The project in question is called Attitudes and fish consumption of young people: Improving the image of seafood and began in 2005 and is expected to be completed in 2008. The aim of the project, which The AVS Fund grants, is to promote increased consumption of fish through consumption surveys and promotional efforts.

Icelanders have long been among the largest fish-consuming nations in the world and this is often linked to the longevity and good health of the nation in general, but now there are various glimmers in the air in that respect, as fish consumption has fallen sharply in a few years or at least 30%.

The research is a collaborative project of IFL, the Social Sciences Institute of the University of Iceland, the Laboratory of Nutrition at the University of Iceland and Landspítali University Hospital, the company Icelandic Services, and students at Reykjavík University also participate in the project.

Today, the names of the winners in the survey were drawn and the result was as follows:

	WINNINGS:	Winner's code:
	Trip for two to Berlin with Flugleidir	RCYCQ
	2 x ISK 15,000 from Glitnir	HHSODLRFWL
	Out to eat for 2 at Sjávarkjallarinn	KCPUB
	3 x2 theater tickets at the National Theater	DRSCCQCWCDFFUFB
	Out to eat for 2 at Skólabrú	JYFHM
	Out to dinner for 2 in Argentina	YKGRJ
	Out for lunch for 2 at La Primavera	QYHGJ

For further information, contact Gunnþórunn Einarsdóttir, tel. +354 530 8667 / gunna@rf.is