Category: News

On Friday, June 9, 2006, Hildigunnur Rut Jónsdóttir defended her research project for a master's degree in aquaculture from the Department of Natural Resources at the University of Akureyri. Rutar's project was entitled "Use of bacterial bacteria to control 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.

Guðrún presented research related to Ph.D. Her project at the Bonn Conference on the use of an electric nose as a rapid measurement method for assessing the quality of fish. Conference proceedings were published with the presentations made.

Further information: Guðrún Ólafsdóttir, tel: 530 8647 gudrun@rf.is

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 says 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.

This week, four employees of the companies Marks & Spencer and Coldwater in the UK were on a trip to Iceland to get acquainted with the fishing industry, fish processing, companies and research related to seafood in Iceland. The four people were happy after a visit to Sjávarútvegshúsið this morning.

Several experts from IFL gave a short presentation of the research conducted here. Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir started by welcoming guests and then told them about IFL's activities and how they were constantly working to increase the value of Icelandic seafood. Helga Gunnlaugsdóttir then talked about monitoring unwanted substances in seafood and recently introduced report on the material that IFL worked on with the support of the Ministry of Fisheries. It attracted their considerable attention how little unwanted substances are found in Icelandic fish, as stated in the aforementioned report.

Kolbrún Sveinsdóttir, then discussed a project called  Attitudes and fish consumption of young people: Improving the image of seafood. Kolbrún said, among other things, that surveys show that fish consumption seems to be declining, especially among young people, and that this is a cause for concern. The guests agreed and had a similar story to tell about Britain. Finally, Sigurjón Arason reported on projects about processing forecast and talked about the need for traceability.

Finally, representatives from the Ministry of Fisheries explained how the fisheries management system works in Iceland and also mentioned other issues such as eco-labeling, but according to the guests, consumers in the UK ask various questions about the origin and background of the food available there and therefore necessary for retailers to have reliable information at hand. It would have been the purpose of their trip to Iceland to gather data.

Those who visited Sjávarútvegshúsið this morning were Andrew Mallison, M&S Technical Manager, Andrew Richy, NPD M&S Technical Manager, Cris Barker, Coldwater's Technical Manager in Grimsby and Andy Beeken, M & S's Sales Representative at Coldwater.

In the latest issue. of Ægis magazine, there is an interesting article by Margrét Bragadóttir, a food scientist at IFL, about possible ways to use capelin oil to an increasing extent for human consumption, for example in mayonnaise, salad dressings, etc.

In his article suggests Margrét Among other things, capelin is the fish species that has been caught in by far the largest amount in Iceland, but the value of this amount has so far been small compared to the amount caught. The capelin is mainly used for smelting in fishmeal factories for the production of fishmeal and fish oil, which has mainly been used in animal feed.

This has been a thorn in the side of many, because it is clear that if it is possible to increase the proportion of capelin products that go directly to human consumption, it would greatly increase the value of the capelin catch that is caught.

Read the article

Further information:

phone: 8612661 / email: margret@rf.is

As many have no doubt noticed, there has been an unusual amount of cyclists on streets and sidewalks all over the country lately and the most unlikely people have been seen in the process. Both spring has finally arrived, but the Bike to Work campaign also took place from 3 to 16 May. IFL did not give up. 

Although this is not a formal competition between workplaces, a rather benevolent assessment, workplaces were still classified according to the number of employees and figures were compiled on their performance.  

IFL competed in the workplace category with 20 - 69 employees and a third of the employees, or 22 out of 60, took part in the campaign, which must be considered quite good. According to statistics, the 22 cycled a total of almost 1,200 kilometers during the campaign. 

The picture above shows some of those who participated on behalf of IFL: Left: María, Þóra, Björn, Helga, Hélène, Birna, Ernst, Ragnar, Rósa, Anna, Heiða, Judith and Eyjólfur. The picture lacks a few warriors, as 22 were registered for the competition, as stated earlier.

On June 16, 2006 at At 13:00, Sigrún Guðmundsdóttir, a biologist at IFL, will defend her doctoral dissertation "Listeria monocytogenes, from humans, food and food processing plants in Iceland – Molecular typing, adhesion and virulence testing ”in the Celebration Hall of the University of Iceland.

Opponents will be 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 Listeria monocytogenes in human beings, food and food processing in Iceland. Audits were carried out on processing plants that produce smoked salmon and boiled shrimp. L. monocytogenes the isolated strains were typed by molecular method (PFGE) and compared. Also, all strains that had been isolated from humans were typed and compared with food establishments. In addition, the adhesion and infectivity of selected strains were examined.

Sigrún's supervisors were Már Kristjánsson, an infectious disease doctor, and dr. Karl G. Kristinsson, professor at the University of Iceland and on the doctoral committee were dr. Ágústa Guðmundsdóttir professor at the University of Iceland, dr. Haraldur Briem, Epidemiologist, dr. Hjörleifur Einarsson professor at the University of Akureyri and dr. Sjöfn Sigurgísladóttir CEO of IFL.

Sigrún Guðmundsdóttir was born in 1966. She graduated from MR in 1986, a BS degree in biology from the University of Iceland in 1991 and an MS degree from Heriott-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland in 1992. She has been a specialist at IFL since 1995 and began her doctoral studies at HÍ 2000.

This morning, a delegation from Argentina visited the Fisheries House and got acquainted with the activities of IFL, the Marine Research Institute and the Ministry of Fisheries.

The delegation, which consists of about 20 people, consists of both public bodies and representatives of companies from all over Argentina. It is worth mentioning that the delegation includes members of parliament and other senior officials.

The group will stay here for a few days after attending the fisheries exhibition in Brussels and the purpose is to get to know the fisheries issues in this country, both in companies and the public sector. They were introduced to the activities that take place here in the house and all that could be seen was that they were very interested in getting to know what the country is doing in the field of fisheries and fish processing and research in those areas.

IFL is advertising for a specialist in the field of food risk assessment. Its role must be to participate in research into the effects of fish on health (risk-benefit analysis of food). The job includes building databases and designing a web interface.

The role of the specialist must be to participate in research into the effects of fish on health (risk-benefit analysis of food). The job involves building databases and designing a web interface. The person in question must be able to work independently and manage projects, as well as work in good collaboration with other specialists within IFL and abroad.

Qualification requirements:

• University education in the field of science (computer science, statistics, chemistry, biology, or food science)
• Very good computer skills are a prerequisite
• Knowledge and experience of using statistics in research is an advantage
• Organizational skills and interpersonal skills
• Initiative and ambition in work.

The application must be accompanied by a clear overview of the study career, computer skills and previous work.

Wages are according to collective agreements of public employees. Remuneration, rights and obligations are otherwise governed by the Act on the Rights and Duties of Government Employees No. 70/1996.

The application deadline is May 28, 2006. Applications with information about education and previous jobs, together with copies of exam documents, are requested to be sent by e-mail (helgag@rf.is) or to the Fisheries Research Institute, Skúlagata 4, 101 Reykjavík. Information about the job is provided by Helga Gunnlaugsdóttir, tel. 530 8600.