Category: News

Icelandic seafood has long been marketed so that emphasis has been placed on its purity and wholesomeness. However, it is not enough to claim that a product is healthy. High-quality and well-defined scientific data on undesirable substances in Icelandic seafood are key factors in demonstrating the status of Icelandic seafood in terms of safety and health. Icelandic food exports also depend on being able to demonstrate their safety, taking into account laws, regulations and market requirements.

In recent report Matís summarizes the results of monitoring of undesirable substances in edible parts of seafood in 2019. The monitoring began in 2003 with the help of the then Ministry of Fisheries, the current Ministry of Industry and Innovation, and Matís ohf. on the collection of data and the publication of reports for this systematic monitoring during the period 2003-2012. In recent years, there has been a lack of funds to continue work on this monitoring project, and therefore this important data collection was suspended as well as the publication of results in the period 2013-2016. The project started again in March 2017, but due to a lack of funds, it now only covers the monitoring of undesirable substances in edible parts of seafood from the resource intended for human consumption, and not fishmeal and fish oil for feed. For the same reason, no chemical analyzes were performed on PAH, PBDE and PFC substances this time.

In general, the results obtained in 2019 were in line with previous results from 2003 to 2012 as well as 2017 and 2018. The results showed that Icelandic seafood contains an insignificant amount of persistent organic pollutants such as dioxins, PCBs and pesticides.

Scientific data of this kind from an independent researcher on the concentration of undesirable substances in seafood is very important in market presentations of seafood for potential buyers and strengthens all marketing work for Icelandic seafood. The data are also used to demonstrate the status of Icelandic seafood in terms of safety and health, as well as in food risk assessments.

The report can be accessed here.

The Energy-2-Feed project was formally launched at Matís on Vínlandsleið last week. The aim of the project is to develop sustainable protein and fat sources from algae that contain large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. The algae cultivation uses clean energy sources and natural carbon dioxide.

The Energy-2-Feed project was formally launched at Matís on Vínlandsleið last week. The aim of the project is to develop sustainable protein and fat sources from algae that contain large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. The algae cultivation uses clean energy sources and natural carbon dioxide.

E2F will offer fully sustainable algae cultivation, but the processing takes place in a controlled environment on Heillisheiði and thus offers continuous production all year round. The production will benefit the European aquaculture industry, which has primarily had to rely on imported and unsustainable protein sources, such as soybeans from South America.

The participants in the project are Matís, Siemens, Waitrose and Algaennovation. Matís leads the project, which is funded by EIT Food.

On February 5, a special policy, or roadmap, was published for research into the micro-flora of the Atlantic. AORA (Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance) is responsible for this publication, which is an organization for marine research in the Atlantic Ocean of which the United States, Canada and the European Union are members.

AORA's goal is to foster the health and preservation of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the well-being, prosperity and security of future generations. The AORA partnership is a result Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Directorate General Research and Innovation at the European Commission and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States.

AORA's policy statement states that the microflora of the ocean plays a key role for human society; for health, food, industry and ecosystems. It is therefore important that the scientific community, industry and policy makers align their efforts to nurture the ocean and better research the properties of the microflora and the potential opportunities it offers. Matís participated in compiling AORA's strategy.

More information about the AORA organization can be found here and a special introductory video about the guide can be found below:

International Day of Women and Girls in Science is today, February 11th.

The United Nations launched this day to raise awareness of the importance of increasing the participation of women and girls in science, which is now almost 30%. The day has been celebrated annually since 2016 to raise awareness of this important issue.

Happy birthday!

Matís ohf. is looking for two specialists to work, one in Akureyri and the other in the Westman Islands. The work mostly involves work on research and development projects in Matís' field of work.

These recruitments are in accordance with the policy of the Ministry of Industry and Innovation on strengthening activities in rural areas. This is a full-time job.
Area of work:

• Strengthen Matís' collaboration with the business community in the field of technology and innovation.
• Acquires projects in the field of Matís in collaboration with companies in the area.
• Set up and manage research projects.

Educational and qualification requirements:

• Work experience and knowledge of fisheries and / or food production.
• A university degree that is useful in the job - further education is an advantage.
• Initiative and independence in working methods.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to express oneself in speech and writing in Icelandic and English

The application deadline is February 17th

For further information, contact Jónas R. Viðarsson, Director of Matís, tel. 422 5000 or e-mail jonas@matis.is

Jónas Baldursson, a master's student in food science, gives an open lecture in connection with his master's defense on the project "Cold cleaning of oil from food and pelagic fish processing. The effect of temperature on the cold cleaning of valuable fatty acids from the side streams of fishmeal and fish oil processing ".

The lecture will take place on Tuesday 30 January at 15:30 in room 312 at Matís at Vínlandsleið 14. All interested are welcome!

Today, a formal tasting of farmed salmon takes place in the premises of Matís ohf. What makes this salmon especially interesting is that it was raised on a feed mixture that contains insects.

In the project Metamorphosis, led by Birgur Erni Smárason at Matís, is working to turn organic waste into valuable raw materials for utilization in aquaculture feed. Lack of protein-rich feed has called for new solutions to meet growing industry demand. More than half of all fish species are now farmed and it is likely that production will double in the next 15 years.

Research has shown that insects are very suitable for the production of feed for fish, but many species of insects have the property of being able to convert organic waste into a diet rich in fat and protein. The project focuses on the development of new feed materials made from insects that could be used to respond to the growing protein deficiency in Europe in a sustainable way.

Now this research project is about to end and the only thing that is really left is to see how farmed salmon that has been fed with this innovative feed mixture tastes.

The project is funded by EIT Food .

Styrmir Svavarsson will give his master's lecture in mechanical engineering in Matís today at 14:30.

The aim of the project was to examine the effects of slush ice and temporary cold and freezing storage on the temperature of cod in fresh fish processing.

Inadequate temperature control in a fresh fish refrigeration chain has a major impact on product quality. It is therefore important that the cooling chain is uninterrupted from fishing to consumers in order to maintain quality. Therefore, the product must be refrigerated quickly and safely down to the storage temperature and maintained. The temperature of the product, refrigerant and processing rooms were mapped and two pre-cooling experiments were performed. The first experiment consisted of placing a cod neck in a pot with ice cream and the second experiment consisted of storing the finished product in a package in the refrigerator and freezer.

The results showed that the temperature of the product when packed was too high compared to the recommended storage temperature of fresh cod. The pre-cooling experiments generated temperature profiles that showed the effect of the cooling method that could be used as a reference to reach the correct temperature of the product. The end result is that by constantly pre-cooling the product down to a defined storage temperature, it is possible to improve the cooling chain and increase the quality of the product.

Department: Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.

Supervising teacher: Fjóla Jónsdóttir, Professor at Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.

Supervisors: Björn Margeirsson, Associate Professor at Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science and Research Director of Sæplast / Tempra.
Sigurjón Arason, professor at the Faculty of Food and Nutrition, University of Iceland and chief engineer at Matís.

Examiner: Gísli Kristjánsson, production manager at Brim.

When: January 20, 2020, 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm

Where: Matís, Vínlandsleið 12

The Board of the Research Fund has completed the allocation of grants for new research projects for the year 2020.

Three projects led by Matís received grants for the year 2020 from the Research Fund; two project grants and one doctoral student grant.

Science and Mathematics:

Project title: Distribution of arsenic species by seaweed components, in particular arsenic lipids

Project manager: Ásta Heiðrún Elísabet PétursdóttirConcentration (thous.): 19,745 ISK

Engineering and technology:

Project title: ThermoExplore - Bioengineering study of the potential of aerobic thermophilic microorganisms for the production of valuable substances from renewable biomass

Project manager: Guðmundur Óli Hreggviðsson, Steinn Guðmundsson

Concentration (thous.): 18,624 ISK

Doctoral student grant:

Project title: Survey of the underground ecosystem of the volcanic island of Surtsey

Project manager: Pauline Anna Charlotte Bergsten

Concentration (thous.): 6,630 ISK

From 1 January 2020, it will be open until 15:00 on Fridays at Matís.

Opening hours Monday to Thursday will continue from 8:30 to 16:00.