At the turn of the month, a new employee, Jón Gunnar Schram, started working at IFL. Jón will work in Ísafjörður and take part in the development of IFL's operations that is currently taking place there, especially in the field of aquaculture.
Jón is an educated teacher from the Iceland University of Education and has worked as a teacher for about a decade, both at primary and secondary school level. Jón has taught both abroad, at Kirkjubæjarklaustur and in Reykjavík, most recently at Hamraskóli.
Jón graduated with an MS in Fisheries from the University of Iceland in 2002. He is a familiar face to many who are interested in fisheries and aquaculture in Iceland, as he has been active in attending conferences in this field in recent years. IFL welcomes Jón to work.
The results of a new report from the annual monitoring project, which monitors pollution and the state of the marine environment around Iceland, show little change from previous years, for example there is little evidence that the concentration of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants is growing in the sea around the country. This can be read from the report Monitoring of the Marine Biosphere around Iceland in 2004-2005 which came out on IFL today.
The report presents the results of an annual monitoring project led by the Environment Agency and funded by the Ministry for the Environment. The aim of the project is to fulfill Iceland's obligations regarding the Oslo and Paris Agreements (OSPAR), as well as AMAP (Artic Monitoring Assessment Program). The monitoring measures various inorganic trace elements and chloro-organic substances in cod and mussels, but these organisms were collected around the country in 2004 and 2005. The results of the measurements described in these reports are a continuation of monitoring measurements that began in 1990.
As before, the concentration of heavy metals in cod and mussels in Iceland is usually measured at or below the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) reference values, with a few exceptions. Thus, for example, cadmium is still relatively high in the marine environment in Iceland, which seems to have a natural geological explanation, as there is no evidence of man-made cadmium pollution.
A comparison with other sea areas shows that the concentration of persistent organic pollutants in the marine environment around Iceland is among the lowest measured in nearby sea areas.
As was reported in a news item on IFL's website recently in connection with an aquaculture conference in Ísafjörður, Dr. Björn Þrándur Björnsson, professor at the University of Gothenburg, has been hired part-time at IFL. Björn Þrándur is one of Europe's leading experts in the field of fish physiology and will take part in IFL's policy in this field.
Björn Þrándur graduated with a BS in Biology from the University of Iceland in 1974 and a Ph.D. degree in animal physiology from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden in 1985. He conducted research and teaching at the Institute of Physiology at the University of Iceland in the years 1974-78 and research at the University of California at Berkeley in the years 1985-87. Björn has been an associate professor at the University of Gothenburg since 1988.
Last week, the number of IFL employees who have completed a doctoral degree increased, but then Sigrún Guðmundsdóttir, a biologist at IFL, defended her doctoral dissertation "Listeria monocytogenes, from humans, food and food processing plants in Iceland – Molecular typing, adhesion and virulence testing. ”
The doctoral defense took place on 16 June in the Celebration Hall of the University of Iceland. Opponents were dr. Bjarnheiður Guðmundsdóttir from the University of Iceland and dr. Marie-Louise Danielsson-Tham, Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU.
Sigrún's dissertation deals with research on the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes in human beings, food and food processing in Iceland. Audits were carried out on processing houses that produce smoked salmon and boiled shrimp and the bacteria were isolated. L. monocytogenes The isolated strains were typed by a molecular method called pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and compared. Everyone L. monocytogenes strains isolated from humans in the years 1978-2000 were also typed and compared with strains isolated from food processing plants. In addition, the adhesion and infectivity of selected strains were examined.
The research took place at IFL. Sigrún's supervisors were Már Kristjánsson, an infectious disease doctor, and Dr. Karl G. Kristinsson Professor at the University of Iceland. The doctoral committee included Dr. Ágústa Guðmundsdóttir Professor at the University of Iceland, Dr. Dr. Haraldur Briem, Dr. Hjörleifur Einarsson professor at the University of Akureyri and Dr. Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir, director of the Fisheries Research Institute.
Sigrún Guðmundsdóttir was born in 1966. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from MR in 1986, a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Iceland in 1991 and an MS degree from Heriott-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland in 1992. She has worked as a specialist at IFL since 1995 and began her doctoral studies. his work there in the year 2000.
This morning, IFL and Arkea hf, the parent company of the biotechnology company Prokaria, issued a joint press release stating that they had signed an agreement that a special company owned by IFL will take over Prokaria's genetic and enzyme division.
The new company, which bears the name Prokaria, will take over Prokaria's current projects, facilities and equipment and hire employees from these divisions. Dr. Jakob K. Kristjánsson, who has been the CEO of Prokaria, will take part in these changes and take a seat on the board of the new company.
In recent years, Prokaria has built up strong research and utilization of nature's genetic resources in the field of genetic analysis and enzyme development. The company has development agreements with large international companies in the food industry such as Nestlé and Roquette. The company also serves a large number of domestic and foreign customers in the genetic analysis of fish, animals and the environment. Prokaria has been a pioneer in Iceland in the development and use of genetic analysis in aquaculture and other fields.
Arkea hf. will continue to operate in its other subsidiaries on projects in the field of DNA enzymes and protein production from geothermal power plant emissions. The aim is to continue good co-operation on these and other projects between these parties.
IFL's operations have developed a lot in recent years and further changes in the operations are ahead. A law was recently passed in Althingi on the establishment of Matvælarannsóknir hf, and IFL will be a large part of the new company's operations. Matvælarannsóknir hf merges IFL, Matra, which is a collaborative project between the Institute of Technology and the Agricultural University, and the Environment Agency's Laboratory. The merger creates opportunities to build a strong research unit in the field of innovation in the food industry, which will also focus on ensuring the safety and wholesomeness of food through research in that field. The inclusion of Prokaria's genetic and enzyme development divisions in this process provides even further opportunities for development and expansion for Matvælarannsóknir hf.
Further information is provided by Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir
In Ísafjörður, there is a great boom in research related to cod farming and it has been decided to hold a meeting on new and extensive projects that have received funding recently. The Minister of Fisheries, Einar K. Guðfinnsson, will chair the meeting, which will begin on Wednesday 21 June. at 9:30
In Ísafjörður, the emphasis in aquaculture is on the physiology of cod and then first and foremost on sex cod and the effect of light control on the growth, sexual maturity and quality of farmed cod. The focus is also on genetic factors that can be linked to physiological factors such as product growth and quality.
Four new research projects related to the development of industrialized cod farming in experimental fish farms in Ísafjarðardjúpur have recently received funding from domestic and foreign funds.
The projects will, among other things, study the effects of light control and the main goal of these studies is to delay or prevent premature puberty, which is a major problem with cod farming. The total turnover of these projects, including the contribution of participants in the projects, is just over ISK 300 million and the turnover (scope) for the west is a total of ISK 103 million. Grants from research funds for the projects amount to a total of ISK 155 million, of which ISK 50 million goes directly to the operation of the projects in Ísafjörður. In the cod fishery in Westfjords, there is a big difference in funding from the European Union, which is a total of 93 m.kr. The share of the Icelandic participants in the grant is significant, or about 34 m.kr. Two cod farming producers with fish farms in Álftafjörður are taking part in this project, i.e. Hraðfrystihúsið Gunnvör hf and Álfsfell ehf.
Worked on sampling from fish farms in Álftafjörður
Dr. Þorleifur Ágústsson takes blood samples from live farmed cod
Due to this extensive development of cod farming research, Jón Gunnar Schram, MS in fisheries science, has been hired to work at the Fisheries Research Institute in Ísafjörður. Jón Gunnar will start work on July 1, but in addition to him, Dr. Þorleifur Ágústsson at IFL's aquaculture department in Ísafjörður.
Rannveig Björnsdóttir, head of the aquaculture department at IFL and lecturer at the University of Akureyri, is, together with Þorleif, an instructor in a research-related master's program that deals with cod farming research in Ísafjarðardjúpur. The role of the student is the development of methods and measurements of the effect of light control on the growth of cod in collaboration with Dr. Björn Þránd Björnsson Professor at the University of Gothenburg. Björn Þrándur, is one of Europe's leading experts in the field of fish physiology and has also been hired part-time at IFL, and he will take part in IFL's policy in this field.
On Friday, June 9, 2006, Hildigunnur Rut Jónsdóttir defended her research project for a master's degree in aquaculture studies from the Natural Resources Department of the University of Akureyri. Rutar's project was entitled "The use of complementary bacteria to control the microbial flora before and after hatching of halibut larvae"
The project was carried out in collaboration between Fiskey ehf., IFL and the University of Akureyri and Ruth investigated the possibility of using additive bacteria for use in the early stages of halibut farming. The production of halibut juveniles is a delicate process and there are usually large losses in the early stages of farming. This often happens without obvious explanations, but research suggests that the composition of the bacterial flora can have a decisive effect on the performance of halibut larvae in initial feeding.
The results of the study indicate that the performance of eggs and larvae is better when the diversity of bacterial flora is greater. The results also indicate that the mixture of supplementary bacteria used has a positive effect on the proportion of so-called gapers, which is a malformation that occurs at the stage of the larval stage of larvae. Treatment of halibut larvae (artemia) with additive bacteria appeared to have a positive effect on the quality of fodder animals by increasing the diversity of the bacterial flora's species composition. The results of experiments with different concentrations of disinfectants in the treatment of halibut larvae indicated that a lower concentration of disinfectant would give even better results in terms of larval performance.
Rutur's supervisor was Rannveig Björnsdóttir, head of the aquaculture department at IFL and lecturer at the University of Akureyri.
The opponent was Dr. Gunnsteinn Haraldsson, director of research-related studies at the University of Iceland School of Medicine.
Recently, the first meeting of a new EU project called "Quality of Life - Integrated Benefit and Risk Analysis" was held in the Netherlands. Web-based tool for assessing food safety and health benefits ”abbreviated QALIBRA but has been given the name Heilsuvogin in Icelandic.
This is a three-and-a-half-year project funded by the EU. IFL manages the project and the project manager is Eva Yngvadóttir, a chemical engineer at IFL's Research Division. Participants in the project are, in addition to Icelanders, from the UK, the Netherlands, Greece, Portugal and Hungary.
The aim of the QALIBRA project is to develop quantitative methods to assess both the positive and negative effects of food ingredients on human health. These methods will be presented in a computer program that will be open and accessible to all stakeholders on the World Wide Web.
The project has already been introduced and was presented at the SEAFOODplus conference which has just ended in Tromsø, Norway, and it will also be presented at a large conference on food safety which will be held in Budapest, Hungary on 11-14 June. The project's website will be launched soon.
For further information, contact Eva Yngvadóttir, tel. 530 8600 or eva@rf.is
A two-day conference on food refrigeration management was recently held in Bonn, Germany. Guðrún Ólafsdóttir, food scientist at IFL among the lecturers. Innovations on labeling and measurements for sensitive foods that indicate the temperature and time load of a product were introduced, among other things.
The idea behind Cold Chain Management is not entirely new. Foods, medicines and other products that need to be stored chilled or frozen within very strict temperature limits, for example, fall under this category.
Temperature and time control are the most important factors in ensuring the quality and shelf life of a delicate product such as fish. With increased transport and longer distribution routes, there is an increasing emphasis on ensuring the low temperature of goods.
The conference discussed, among other things, the development of microbial prediction models and "Smart label" labeling to predict the shelf life and safety of food. For the consumer, markings are called so-called TTI (time temperature indicators) which can provide information on the temperature and time load of a product and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) markings are gaining ground.
Four representatives from the Whole Foods Market visited the Sjávarútvegshúsið this morning, to learn about Icelandic fish, research on seafood and how Icelanders manage their fisheries.
The Fisheries House has been quite hospitable recently, but it has only been a few days since members of the Marks & Spencer retail chain in the UK visited. Hopefully this is a sign of growing interest abroad in Icelandic fish and seafood and the fact that fish is not only good and healthy, but research shows, among other things that IFL has done, that there is unusually little unwanted substance in the fish caught is here by land.
Whole Foods Market the retail chain is probably the largest of its kind, but the WFM website states that the chain operates 155 stores in the United States and the United Kingdom. The retail chain specializes in the sale of "natural" and organically grown foods.
Baldvin Jónsson, marketing specialist and project manager at Áform, took care of the group's Iceland trip from WFM, but Baldvin has worked on marketing Iceland and Icelandic products for a long time. Among other things, he plays a major role in the success of the Fun and Food festival, which is now held here every year with remarkable results.
