Category: News

One of the issues that Matís oversees and builds on an old heritage is collaboration on the utilization of grain for food production. Agriculture in the North Atlantic countries has a cool climate and a short growing season for plants.

Despite this, farmers in Iceland have been cultivating grain in recent decades and have mastered the crop. Iceland is in the northern part of the cereal belt and from time to time weak grain-growing rivers occur. The Agricultural University of Iceland and its predecessor, the Agricultural Research Institute, Rala, have made grain cultivation in Iceland possible through grain breeding and the dissemination of knowledge to farmers. Cereal breeding began in the 1960s and the work has been continuous for more than 50 years. Breeding has been successful and varieties suitable for conditions in Iceland have emerged. The food department was operated within Rala from 1977 and with the cooperation of food scientists and farmers, interest was sparked in increasing the utilization of domestic grain for food production. Some activities within Matís can still be traced to Rala's food department and the knowledge that was built up there is constantly being developed.

In 2005, work began on projects aimed at utilizing domestic cereals for food production, and they were funded by the Agricultural Productivity Fund. This work then developed into co-operation between the North Atlantic countries, which was supported by Nordic co-operation and the Arctic Strategy.

Domestic grain is primarily barley, but it is well suited for a variety of foods. In bread it is used in conjunction with flour and the barley provides a good taste and health benefits such as beta-glucans which lower blood cholesterol and reduce blood sugar fluctuations. Other barley foods include biscuits, cereals, porridge and ready meals. Finally, barley is used to produce malt, which is one of the most important raw materials in brewing.

Global warming is changing growing conditions, and some crops in the southern hemisphere may be more difficult to grow than ever before. This creates increased pressure on feed and food production in the northern regions. Utilization of domestic grain increases food security and increases sustainability in food and feed production in Iceland.

For further information Ólafur Reykdal, food scientist at Matís.

Matís' annual report has been published. This time, the main subject of the report is the good foundation that has been built up by Matís and Matís' predecessors in recent decades. The importance of the institutions and companies that merged when Matís was founded in 2007 is still very much in Matís' operations to this day.

Matís Annual Report 2015

For further information Steinar B. Aðalbjörnsson, marketing director of Matís.

Matís' annual report has been published. This time, the main subject of the report is the good foundation that has been built up by Matís and Matís' predecessors in recent decades. The importance of the institutions and companies that merged when Matís was founded in 2007 is still very much in Matís' operations to this day.

The version quoted here is in English, but the Icelandic version will be published in the next few days.

Matís Annual Report 2015

Matís staff wishes its customers and all Icelanders a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.

Matís' switchboard and reception will be closed on 24 and 31 December. The direct telephone number for the microbiology department is 858-5116.

Information on other employees' telephone numbers can be found on our website, www.matis.is.

As in recent years, Matís does not send out traditional Christmas cards, but only cards in electronic form. Instead, Matís sponsors SKB, a sponsoring association for children with cancer.

It is Matís' wish that the grant be put to good use and further support the excellent work that is already being done at SKB.

Further information can be found on SKB's website, www.skb.is.

Matís and the Fisheries Research Institute before that have been partners in teaching at the United Nations University's School of Fisheries, UNU-FTP, from the beginning of the school's activities in 1998.

"The program emphasizes practical knowledge and experience and students work closely with Icelandic supervisors in project work and job presentations that take up more than half of the six months of the program. Every year, special studies are offered in 3-4 courses, but the special studies take 4-5 months. Matís is in charge of teaching a quality program and students in that program range from 5 to 10. Every year, 15-20 Matís specialists come to teaching and project instructions ", says Heiða Pálmadóttir, Matís' subject manager.

It can be quite a puzzle to put together the program for the special study, "first there are lectures for 6 weeks and there are various people involved and not just experts at Matís, but people from all over the Icelandic fishing industry and related fields such as transport and packaging. We go on visits where companies receive students, these are fun and informative visits for students and no less for escorts. Fun discussions are created more during informal visits than when attending a lecture on the subject. I myself have found it fun and educational to go on these visits, "says Heiða Pálmadóttir, who has supervised the teaching for many years.

Benefits of the UNU-FTP school from the collaboration:

• Matís has a wide range of specialists with long experience in research and services in the fishing industry
• Matís' experts have good connections with the Icelandic fishing industry due to the small size of the country, from fishing to export and consumption.
• Matís' specialists collaborate in many ways with Icelandic universities and are connected to education in both undergraduate and graduate studies and form a bridge between industry and universities in Iceland.

Matís benefits from the collaboration:

• Matís contributes to development aid
• Matís' experts maintain links with the fishing industry and the fishing industry and preserve their basic knowledge in that field
• Creates new opportunities for increased projects in the international market

Students work on their final projects at Matís and this creates a connection with students who do not break up. Many return to further studies in Iceland, although some have entered doctoral and master's studies in recent years. By staying in Iceland for so long, a great and lasting connection is created between people. This has given rise to long-term projects and friendships.

"I have been in contact with students from SriLanka, he is setting up a quality system and sought advice on the implementation of individual measurements such as quality measurements on fish and further explanations of methodology - this can be done online and takes us little time. serve. Another example is a student in Kenya who has been in contact for a fatty acid diagnosis, but she is particularly interested in increasing fish oil consumption, especially in young children and their mothers. Undeniably, one thinks of one's students when tragedy strikes their nations and one never knows what will happen to them especially if the ties are not stable. It was also a strong experience to receive students from North Korea and Cuba during the worst situation, "says Heiða.

"All of these are well-educated people in the beginning and extremely interested in learning and getting to know as much as possible what we have to offer," Heiða concludes.

Due to a coverage of skin products from the company Villimey that appeared in DV yesterday, 16 December 2016, Matís would like to state the following:

In a news item that Matís published on its website on 1 September. is an inaccurate wording, but part of the news can be understood in the sense that Matís has studied the effectiveness of skin care products on bodily functions.

Regarding the conduct of the research in question, it is correct that herbs in aqueous solution (plant extract) with herbs used in Villimey's skin products were tested in various skin cell tests and connective tissue tests. Such tests provide evidence of the activity of various substances in the skin and connective tissue cells. The relevant cell assays measured collagen levels and the levels of the enzymes elastase, metal proteinase 1, metal proteinase 2 and metal proteinase 9.

The tests showed that the herbs inhibited the synthesis of the enzymes. The tests also showed an increase in the amount of collagen in skin cells. There was also activity in healing files in cell epithelium with the so-called "Scratch wound healing" test (filament healing test) as well as antioxidant effect.

Matís regrets having sent a text that contained inaccurate wording and apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Further information is provided by Sveinn Margeirsson, CEO of Matís.

"We want it to be taken for granted that scientists work with fishermen on fisheries research and that fisheries stakeholders see scientists as valuable partners in policy-making," said Steve Mackinson of the UK's Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Center in a recent interview. Horizon, EU Research & Innovation Magazine but the occasion was e.g. The WhiteFish project in which Matís and the Association of Companies in the Fisheries Sector (SFS) participated on behalf of Iceland.

Matís, together with partners from Norway, Sweden, the UK and the Netherlands, was a participant in the research project WhiteFish, which was part of FP7, the 7th European Research Program, but the project has just been completed. The aim of the project was to develop and verify a method for calculating, analyzing individual batches (eg boxes, pallets or fishing trips), the environmental impact of cod and haddock products. The project will especially benefit small and medium-sized companies in the value chain of cod and haddock products, so that they can record the sustainability of products and processing methods. By being able to demonstrate the environmental impact of individual batches of production, the project's product will be used to give producers of cod and haddock products a competitive advantage in the market, which will presumably result in improved market access, higher prices and increased consumer goodwill.

The whole article is on Horizon website.

Related material

• Open workshop on environmental impact assessment in fish product value chains

At the handicraft slaughterhouse in Sailing camp in Landbrot employs a pioneer who asked Matís for a solution to his problems. Farmer Erlendur Björnsson had long had plans to set up a meat processing plant to process products from his own raw materials. For this he had thought of using a large shed by the town, which he had built up a few years ago, but was rather poorly used, mostly as storage for equipment and tools.

After some deliberation, it was agreed that the premises could be used as a smaller slaughterhouse, in addition to traditional meat processing. It can be said that it is not possible to get closer to the ideology "Straight from the farm".

A great deal of preparation went into it, which was based, among other things, on the design and organization of the slaughterhouse and the procedures required there, and also a lot of time was spent communicating with official regulators as this was the first slaughterhouse of its kind in the country. It was also necessary to convince licensors and regulators that even small slaughterhouses, with limited manpower, where work processes are based more on craftsmanship than automation, can meet all the requirements for slaughterhouses. It has now been two slaughter seasons since the opening of the slaughterhouse, at which time it has been confirmed that the house's products have become very desirable, as the quality is chronic, whether in terms of hygiene or taste and texture.

The next steps of Erlendur Björnsson and Þórunn Júlíusdóttir, the pioneers in Seglbúðir in collaboration with Matís, are to increase the operation of the building and the preparation of a large animal slaughterhouse, i.e. bulls and horse slaughter, already underway. This activity will strengthen the activities and create some jobs in the countryside in addition to those that were created at the opening of the sheep slaughterhouse.

For further information Óli Þór Hilmarsson at Matís.

This summer, the "Craft Reach" project was launched, which aims to support start-ups and current small producers in remote and sparsely populated areas. Matís is one of the seven partners in the project, which is funded for three years by the Northern Pheryphery and Arctic program. The project will be based on the success and experience of the "Économusée Craft International" project that laid the foundation for this project.

The main focus of the project is to help build and market craft businesses in remote and sparsely populated areas, and in the process encourage and inspire young people. Partners in the project are from Norway, Canada, the Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Iceland and Greenland.

Matís is currently looking for craft companies that are interested in becoming an ÉCONOMUSÉE and are connected to the "Craft Reach" network. For more information, visit the website, www.economusee.eu.

There are already three ÉCONOMUSÉEs in Iceland, they are Leir 7 in Stykkishólmur, Arfleifð in Djúpavogur and Gestastofa Sútarans in Sauðárkrókur.  

Craft companies interested in participating must meet the following conditions:

ÉCONOMUSÉE is a company that:

• Use traditional craft methods
• Produce traditional and / or new products with specific cultural connections
• Open its doors to the public to introduce the craft and the people behind it
• Has a building designed so that guests can show the processing and products
• Aims to become financially independent

Further information about the project or the current craft company can be found at www.economusee.eu.

If you think you meet the above criteria and are interested in being part of this exciting network, you can contact Gunnþórunn Einarsdóttir ( gunna@matis.is).

The deadline to apply is December 21.