Category: News

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has introduced a new scientific opinion on the dangers to humans and animals of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs in food and feed. Dangers may arise from these substances in food according to Art. the opinion and EFSA proposes a sevenfold reduction of the reference values on the basis of new research, a news item of which is published today on the website of the Food Administration (www.mats.is).

EFSA proposes lowering the limit value for the acceptable intake of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs to 2 pg * TEQ ** per kg body weight per week, while the current value is 14 pg TEQ per kg body weight per week. An acceptable weekly intake is the amount of substances we can ingest weekly, for life, without causing health damage.

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Matís has just started a project in collaboration with Sæbýli with a grant from the Technology Development Fund, where work will be done to build a foundation for scaling up sea urchin farming in Iceland. The world market has grown enormously over the last 10 years and all indications are that growth will continue. 

Sæbýli has now built a facility in Eyrabakki for continued breeding and Þorlákshöfn for breeding and fertilization. Production into the market is now in the early stages, but the farm has a production capacity of 70 tons / year into the world market, which counts at least. 150 thousand tons. Sæbýli's long-term goal is to build up an aquaculture industry in Iceland with production of over 1000 tonnes / year by building up standard production units in other parts of Iceland. In order for this to happen, certain technical barriers to upscaling need to be resolved and, based on that, "state-of-the-art"Standard production house.

Furthermore, data will be collected in this project to demonstrate the health and wholesomeness of the products as well as data on the environmental impact of the production. Communication with Icelandic consumers, restaurants and stakeholders will be established, as well as marketing measures abroad.

This weekend, the first Lambathon took place, a 24-hour competition for the best idea to increase value creation in the sheep value chain.

A total of 6 teams competed in the competition, which was a knife fight. The winning idea was "Introducing the sheep", But it aims to promote sheep as an attraction for tourists and give tourists the opportunity to easily experience various jobs in the country's farms related to sheep. The winning team consisted of Arnþór Ævarsson, Magnea Jónasdóttir and Kári Gunnarsson and they received 200 thousand in prizes. The jury consisted of Guðjón Þorkelsson, who was its chairman, Arnar Bjarnason, Bryndís Geirsdóttir, Gunnfríður Hreiðarsdóttir and Ragnheiður Héðinsdóttir.

The winning team has also taken the concept work a step further, as the English working title "Sheepadvisor" was mentioned as a possible way to get closer to foreign visitors to the country and nation with the information that needs to be presented to foreign tourists, whether it is which are made from sheep products, where products made from Icelandic wool are sold, what events are on the agenda such as sheep breeding or whatever else is deemed necessary.

The contestants were characterized by a great wealth of ideas and there were many ideas for continued development and co-operation at the end of the competition.

The event was organized by Matís, Landbúnaðarháskóli Íslands, Bifröst University, Landgræðslan, Ráðgjafamiðstöð landbúnaðarins, Matvælastofnun, Landssamtök sauðfjárbænda, Samtök ungra bænda, Háskóli Íslands and Icelandic Lamb.

The Nordic Council of Ministers published an auspicious publication about Iceland's chairmanship of the Nordic Council of Ministers 2019. The title of the chairmanship is "Good mutuals" and is taken from Hávamál and indicates that it is always short, opposite, to a good friend.

Nordic co-operation is one of the most extensive regional co-operations in the world. The countries involved in this co-operation are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as Åland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
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Margildi and Matís, together with foreign partners, are currently working on a short-term collaborative project where market conditions for Margildi's fish oil in Asia are being investigated with the help of the AVS Fund. The aim of the project is to study and work on a market for Margildi's products in Asia, and the Vietnam market will be used as an experimental market where the fish oil will be marketed by a health chain in that country. Consumer requirements, traditions and regulations will be mapped, as well as the willingness to pay will be assessed by local parties. 

Margildi is a start-up company that has developed a new and unique processing method, so-called rapid cold cleaning, which makes it possible to fully clean fish oil for human consumption from the pelagic species capelin, herring and mackerel. Margildi's products already (http://fiskolia.com/) was presented to a focus group in the city of Nha Trang and the response was positive and useful information was obtained that will be useful in ongoing marketing work. There is some tradition of consuming omega-3 products in Vietnam, but so far the consumption has mostly been in the form of capsules. The Vietnamese have been pleasantly surprised by how tasty the fish oil from Margildur is and it has been well received by those who have tried to consume it for a certain period of time.

Representatives of Margildi and Matís will next month visit potential partners in Vietnam to work on further marketing issues, but parties from China have also shown great interest in the company's products.

Further information about the project can be obtained from Snorri Hreggviðsson at Margildur and Valur N. Gunnlaugsson at Matís.

How can we increase the value of the sheep value chain? Do you have a great idea for example about new product, marketing, service, design, distribution, grazing management, animal welfare, sustainability, utilization of by-products, agricultural contracts, legal environment, revolution or other?

Matís, Landbúnaðarháskóli Íslands, Bifröst University, Landgræðslan, Ráðgjafamiðstöð landbúnaðarins, Matvælastofnun, Landssamtök sauðfjárbænda, Samtök ungra bændar, Háskóli Íslands and Icelandic Lamb stand for so-called Lambaþon 9 - 10 November. 

What is Lambaþon?

Lambaþon is a competition between teams of 4-8 people for the best idea to increase value creation in the value chain of sheep in Iceland. Individuals can also register and will be paired with other individuals at the start of the Lambathon. 

Take part in promoting value in agriculture - take part in Lambaþon 2018!

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Now it is approx. to launch a very interesting project within Matís. The project concerns the development of an SNP genetic marketing kit that can be used to analyze the genetic mixing of farmed salmon and wild salmon with greater certainty than is currently known in Iceland. It is hoped that the genetic marker kit will be useful for the analysis of genetic engineering beyond the first generation of hybrids.

The genetic marketing kit will also play a key role in the MRI's risk assessment for monitoring genetic engineering and analyzing the long-term effects of genetic engineering on Icelandic salmon stocks.

The project is a collaboration between Matís, the Marine Research Institute, the Marine and Water Research and Consulting Institute and NINA (Norwegian Institute for Natural Research) and is funded by the Environmental Fund for Aquaculture.

More information as the project progresses.

It is now time to start an interesting project at Matís, in collaboration with and funded by Matarauður Íslands at the Ministry of Industry and Innovation. The project aims to strengthen the knowledge and awareness of Icelandic children about local, Icelandic primary production and the importance of its maintenance and development.

The project is an implementation of the idea of a cooking project for school children, in line with the sustainability goals / global goals of the United Nations and the need for a general change of mindset regarding consumption, maintenance and the structure of primary production. The project aims to raise the awareness and interest of Icelandic children in better utilization of food products (reduction of food waste), utilization of local Icelandic products in cooking, wealth of ideas and innovation in cooking from traditional Icelandic ingredients.

The special Icelandic food traditions and origins of food have become unclear to children in many places, as children today have become accustomed to the food coming in packaging from stores. This applies to larger and smaller communities, where access to the primary production of the local community is generally deficient and consumption based on the utilization of natural products from wildlife is declining compared to previous generations.

Partners in addition to Matarauður Íslands are Sveinn Kjartansson, chef, Hinrik Carl Ellertsson, chef, and three primary schools in Skagafjörður as well as Norðlingaskóli in Reykjavík.

A major step has now been taken in work aimed at increasing food security in Iceland even further, but yesterday a draft regulation on the risk assessment committee fell into the Consultation Portal - open government consultation with the public. This is great news, as it has taken a long time to issue this regulation, which will make an official scientific risk assessment possible in the field of food, feed, fertilizers and seeds.

Stakeholders, companies, institutions and individuals are encouraged to participate in the consultation by submitting a comment; it can be done on The consultation portal.