Category: News

Sixteen European countries are competing for the title of Europe's most innovative food in 2015 on 5 and 6 October at the International Food Exhibition in Milan, Feeding the Planet "Energy for Life".

What will be the food of the future? What will be the main trends and trends in food consumption in Europe?

In October, these questions will be answered with the innovation of 85 university students in the Ecotrophelia Europe competition in Milan. Competitors from Austria, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Hungary and Germany will present attractive, tasty and innovative products to a jury composed of representatives from the same countries. The chairman of the jury is Michel COOMANS, former President of the Food Division of the Ministry of Industry of the European Union. The total value of the prize is 15,000 euros. 

Iceland represents the product Humarpaté or Paté de Langoustine developed by 7 students from the University of Akureyri and the University of Iceland with support from Matís, the Icelandic Innovation Center and the Confederation of Icelandic Industries. 

Studying food innovation increases the competitiveness of companies

Since 2011, the ECOTROPHELIA initiative has organized 75 competitions and mobilized 550 universities and over 3000 students to participate. Forty products, designed within the framework of the European competition, have been developed and placed on the market. ECOTROPHELIA Europe is a study model for universities and students, accredited by the Ministry of Industry of the European Union. The competition combines talent, skills and innovation. It is also a platform for people in teaching, research, production and business to have effective communication.

ECOTROPHELIA Europe is organized by the Chamber of Commerce of the Vaucluse region of France with the support of the food industry associations in France and elsewhere in Europe, including the Confederation of Icelandic Industries. Other sponsors are various public bodies in France and the large companies NESTLÉ World and Campden BRI in the United Kingdom.

PRIZE IN THE ECOTROPHELIA EUROPE COMPETITION will be presented on Tuesday 6 October at the exhibition area of the International Food Exhibition in Milan, Feeding the Planet "Energy for Life".

This article first appeared on the website of the Confederation of Icelandic Industries, www.si.is, where you can get more information.

Signed a co-operation agreement on studies for foreign managers in the international fisheries sector at RU

The Open University of RU and Matís, in collaboration with the Association of Companies in the Fisheries Sector (SFS) and other university and research institutes in Iceland, has established comprehensive studies for foreign managers and specialists in the fisheries sector. Ari Kristinn Jónsson, Rector of Reykjavík University and Sveinn Margeirsson, CEO of Matís, signed a co-operation agreement on the establishment of the Iceland School of Fisheries at RU yesterday.

The Icelandic seafood industry is known for high quality products and responsible fishing. The Iceland School of Fisheries' goal is to share valuable knowledge of Icelandic experts in this field. The course will cover management in the fisheries sector, processing of marine products, marketing and the latest developments in technology and innovation in the fishing industry. Furthermore, fisheries management, regulations, research and monitoring in the fisheries sector will be discussed.

"At Reykjavík University, we have extensive experience of building international studies in areas where Icelanders have expertise. In the development of such studies, collaboration with leading Icelandic companies and institutions is very important and we are therefore very pleased with this agreement with Matís, "said Ari Kristinn Jónsson, Rector of RU. "We have already felt great interest from abroad and we also hope that Icelandic companies will benefit from inviting foreign customers and partners to Iceland School of Fisheries courses to gain expertise in a strong and sustainable fishing industry."

Sveinn Margeirsson, CEO of Matís, emphasizes that the co-operation platform between Matís and Reykjavík University fits in very well with Matís 'operations, as one of Matís' goals is to involve parties in the fisheries sector, whether in Iceland or abroad. In recent years, Matís has taken great strides in increasing foreign co-operation, and it is therefore a matter of great anticipation to participate with RU in building an international, strong management program for parties in the fisheries sector. "With this, we strengthen the knowledge of those who handle the important raw material that fish is and thus ensure increased quality that results in higher prices for the nations that fish," says Sveinn. 

The Iceland School of Fisheries will teach three-week courses this autumn and will include instructors from the Icelandic business community and academia. Speakers include Svein Margeirsson, CEO of Matís; Þór Sigfússon, managing director of Sjávarklasan; Guðbjörg H Guðmundsdóttir, project manager for innovation at Marel; Eggert Benedikt Guðmundsson, former CEO of Grandi; Daði Már Kristófersson, President of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Iceland and Bjarni Már Magnússon, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at RU. Visits will also be made to Icelandic fisheries companies and institutions working in the field of fisheries.

For further information:

• Eiríkur Sigurðsson, Head of Marketing and Communications at RU, tel. +354 859 5117, e-mail eirikursig@hr.is
• Steinar B. Aðalbjörnsson, Marketing Director of Matís, tel. 858 5111, e-mail steinar@matis.is

The Fisheries Conference calls for a futuristic idea to strengthen the Icelandic fisheries sector and related industries. Prize money up to ISK 500 thousand is available.

If you're an inventor, think outside the box, please submit a futuristic idea. Individuals and / or companies can submit ideas or nominate others.
A good opportunity to present good ideas and the following prizes are awarded:

• Prize money will be awarded in the amount of ISK. 500 thous.
• The three best ideas are presented and given special recognition at the Fisheries Conference.
• The best ideas get a booth at the conference to present their ideas.
• More ideas will then be presented in a special conference issue of the Fisheries Conference.
• The 10 best creators get one for free at the conference.

At the Fisheries Conference 2015, there will be five presentations where older avant-garde ideas will be presented and, among other things, how far they have come in development.

The deadline for submitting applications is 1 October next.
 
More information on the conference website under the heading PRIZE

The World Seafood Congress (WSC) 2015 is about to end, but this time the conference is being held in Grimsby, England. At the end of each conference, it will be announced who will hold the next one, and it was just announced that WSC 2017 will be held in Reykjavík on September 10-14, 2017.

It is a great honor to host the WSC, but the conference is very large and draws people from all corners of the fishing industry and fishing, from wild fishing to aquaculture and everything in between. The conference will be attended by members of the fishing industry, fish processing companies, importers, exporters, people from educational institutions, companies and state-run institutions around the world.

Main theme

The main theme of the 2017 conference is growth in the blue bioeconomy, but the blue bioeconomy is a reference to the importance of the ocean where there are significant opportunities for growth, innovation, research, marketing with food safety, food security, sustainability and food integrity as a guiding principle.

Highlights:

• Innovation in the fisheries sector - new products and investment opportunities
• Food safety - a prerequisite for innovation in food production and international food trade
• Food integrity - the fight against fraud in food production and sales in the age of online shopping, food-related tourism and consumers' desire for traceability in food production

For further information, contact Sigrún Elsa Smáradóttir (858-5113) or Steinar B. Aðalbjörnsson (858-5111).

Conference website: www.wsc2017.com
Twitter: @ WSC_2017
Facebook: World Seafood Congress

Work has begun on a new international project for the utilization of grain in the Arctic. The project is funded by the Northern Periphery & Arctic Program and lasts for three years. Participants are from Iceland (Matís and the Agricultural University), Northern Norway, the Faroe Islands, Orkney and Newfoundland.

Training is available to companies

The aim of the project is to increase food production from domestic grain and find new ways to utilize the grain. The intention is also to increase the value of grain production and increase the number of jobs related to grain. Guidelines will be provided on how best to grow grain under different conditions, information on the grain market will be extracted and efforts will be made in the product development of baked goods and beverages in collaboration with companies.

Cross-border information sharing is a key element of the project. Companies in the baking and beverage industry are available to use a variety of information as well as courses and tutoring. Three Icelandic companies in the baking industry are invited to take part in courses and road guidance NOFIMA in Norway. This includes a product development course in the spring of 2016 and a course on marketing in the spring of 2017 as well as consulting during the period. NOFIMA has an advanced experimental bakery and extensive experience in the development of grain products. Beverage manufacturers can take advantage of Orkney's experience in the beverage industry.

Matís requests information from the companies that want to use information sharing in the project. Interested companies are also requested to participate in the courses, but they will be selected on the basis of their expected results. Companies must send information about interest and plans to Ólafur Reykdal at Matís ( olafur.reykdal@matis.is).

The company Villimey slf produces organically certified products from Icelandic herbs that grow in the wild nature of the Westfjords. Villimey's products came on the market in August 2005 and production has been growing in recent years. The products have been well received in Iceland and where they have been introduced abroad.

Villimey bases its operations on the utilization of the resources of Vestur-Barðastrandasýsla, which are pure and unpolluted nature and plants that grow wild in nature. Aðalbjörg Þorsteinsdóttir, owner and managing director of Villimeyjar, uses this purity of nature to produce products from herbs and bases the production on centuries-old recipes that she has developed in line with modern requirements and needs. Villimeyjar's products have become well-known in Iceland and are becoming increasingly popular.

Results from bioactivity studies of Villimey products

In recent months, herbal products produced by Villimey in Tálknafjörður have been studied at Matís' laboratory in Sauðárkrókur and in Reykjavík. The production of the herbal ointments from Villimey is in accordance with the strictest requirements regarding hygiene and quality workmanship. No preservatives are added to the ointments and they meet the requirements generally made for such production. These are natural products that have their natural activity against bacteria. This activity of the ointments was demonstrated by a so-called "Preservative efficiency test (challenge test)", which was carried out in Matís' laboratory. These tests followed the guidelines of the European Pharmacopoeia (7th edition from 2011).

Villimeyjar skin care products have also been tested in a variety of skin cell tests where it is possible to measure the activity of various substances in skin cells and thus find out their effect on the structure of skin cells. The skin cell tests measure the amount of collagen that promotes the development of skin cells, the elastase that causes the skin to degenerate, the metal proteinase 1 that breaks down collagen and the metal proteinase 2 that is necessary for the regeneration of body tissues.

These tests showed a positive effect of Villimey's skin care products on these substances and they either prevent their formation such as elastase and thus counteract the degeneration of the skin or stimulate their production such as collagen and thus contribute to the regeneration of the skin. There was also a considerable positive response of the skin care products in tests that measure their inhibitory effect on inflammation in muscles and joints.

Furthermore, the skin products were found to be effective in healing cells in the epithelium by means of a so-called "Scratch wound healing" test, and their healing effect in this test was found to be significant beyond the untreated criteria.

Antioxidant effects were also measured in Villimeyjar's products, both skin care products and herbal apple cider vinegar, and the antioxidant activity was found to be significantly higher than untreated criteria, and this antioxidant activity can be traced to the herbs used in the products. There was also a significant anti-inflammatory effect of the herbal mixture in the apple cider vinegar.

Matís 'research on Villimey's products has been funded by the V-Barðastrandasýsla Research and Innovation Fund, and Villimey and Matís' fund would like to thank the fund for their important support.

Guðjón Þorkelsson, an employee of Matís, recently received the position of professor at the University of Iceland. Guðjón has taught at the University or all the streets for a long time since 1978. Guðjón studied biology at the University of Iceland where he graduated in 1977 and subsequently studied food science, but Guðjón has a master's degree in food science from the University of Leeds in England where he graduated in 1981. In addition, Guðjón sits on the board of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Iceland.

At Matís, Guðjón oversees everything related to education and food production, and Guðjón is an important connection between Matís and the universities in Iceland. We are very proud of Guðjón's professorship and look forward to tackling future projects together.

Guðjón gave a lecture at a special introductory lecture last week. week, but at the School of Health Sciences at the University of Iceland, the promotion or hiring of new professors is celebrated with such a presentation. The ceremony began with a brief overview of Guðjón's main jobs, but then he took over himself and gave a talk on his work and vision in teaching and research.
 
Matís sincerely congratulates Guðjón on his professorship.

Two new articles have now been published in the scientific journal Icelandic Agricultural Sciences and can be accessed at IAS website. 

The first article A Comparative Analysis of the Energy Return on Investment of Organic and Conventional Icelandic Dairy Farms (EROI) by Reyni Smári Atlason, Karl Martin Kjareheim, Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir and Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir. It was examined which agricultural method returns the most energy to the community against the energy that the farms use. This is the first time that energy used by Icelandic farms is compared with the energy they produce. This is an important contribution to the debate on energy efficiency in agriculture and how we use non-renewable energy and raw materials in agriculture. It also allows us to start comparisons with other countries in this field.

Another innovation was that the energy profitability of traditional and organic farms was compared here. The results are not unequivocal as there were too few organic farms to draw definitive conclusions, but the study indicates that organic cow farms can provide better energy yields than traditional farms. The yield per hectare is smaller, but on the other hand, artificial fertilizers are not used, but their preparation, transport and anesthesia require a great deal of energy combined.

The other article Soil nematode communities on Surtsey 50 years after its formation (50 years after the formation of the volcanic island) is by Krassimira Ilieva-Makulec, Brynhildur Bjarnadóttir and Bjarni D. Sigurðsson. The article discusses the changes that have taken place in wireworm communities in the soil on Surtsey since it was formed in 1963, but nematodes play an important role in the primary development of ecosystems and in soil formation. The authors compare malnourished areas and areas that were nutrient-rich due to dense gulls. A total of 25 genera of nematodes were found, of which 14 had not been found before. The authors found a connection between several soil factors and vegetation, but at the same time the development of nematodes had a different process than the development of vegetation.

Research on soil life is very rare in Iceland and therefore this research can be seen as a novelty in that field and an important contribution to basic research on soil life. This study is also an important contribution to the development of soil life on a new island, on previously unvegetated land.

It is clear that a large amount of data is collected during fishing and processing at Icelandic fisheries companies. This information is often used by themselves in later fisheries management, where specific species or specific units of catch are retrieved. There are also examples of companies using this data in margin calculations for fishing and processing.

This detailed data collection that takes place during fishing, landing and processing at Icelandic fisheries companies can then be used for further processing by regulators or as accompanying data with products to buyers or customs authorities.

The purpose of this document is to show what information is involved, where it is obtained and its flow between parties according to different fishing, processing methods and sales processes.

The document can be accessed here (best viewed in Acrobat Reader).

For further information Valur N. Gunnlaugsson at Matís.

At the beginning of the 2012/13 fishing year, a regulation came into force that obliges the operators of processing vessels to bring ashore some of the cod heads that are caught during processing in Icelandic jurisdiction. The background to the enactment of the regulation, the effect of the regulation on the amount of cod heads landed in the first two fishing years that the regulation has been in force and the possible ways for the fishing companies to meet the conditions of the regulation, are outlined in a recent report by Matís.

In August 2011, the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture issued Regulation 810/2011 on the utilization of catches and by-products. In that regulation, it was stated that vessels processing catch on board were obliged to bring cod cliffs and cod heads ashore. The regulation stipulated that from 1 February 2012, vessels should bring ashore 50% of all cod climbs and cod heads caught during fishing in Icelandic jurisdiction. As of 1 September 2012, the same vessels would be obliged to bring all cod climbs and cod heads ashore during fishing in Icelandic jurisdiction. However, this regulation met with considerable opposition from shipowners, who considered its objectives to be technically unrealistic and economically unreasonable. The Ministry therefore sought consultation among the various stakeholders and professionals to reach a conclusion that all parties to the case could agree on.

Subsequently, Regulation 1296/2011 was issued in December 2011 and the obligation that processing vessels should bring cod climbing ashore had been completely abolished and obligations regarding the proportion of cod heads that should be brought ashore with cargo space had been linked. of the vessels. According to the regulation, which entered into force on 1 September 2012, processing vessels with a usable cargo volume of between 600 and 800 m³ obliged to bring 30% cod heads that occur during fishing in Icelandic waters and freezer trawlers with more than 800 m³ cargo space was to bring 40% of incidental cod heads ashore. Processing vessel with a usable cargo volume of less than 600 m³ were, however, exempted from this Regulation. The processing vessels were allowed to replace the heads, to bring the corresponding amount of gels, cheeks and / or feet ashore or of other products made from heads on board.

There are various problems with the possibility of landing cod heads on at least part of the freezer fleet. There is very limited space on the mezzanine deck of most ships and therefore it is difficult to install new equipment for processing heads, the freezing capacity is limited and the freezing equipment is not suitable for freezing heads, the heads used to deliver raw materials that are unsuitable for further processing, storage space in freezers is limited, the workload on the crews is already high and it is difficult to increase it for the relatively limited financial return from head processing.

However, some parts of the fleet come ashore with some of their cod heads, and this proportion has been increasing in recent years. In those cases, the company has managed to adapt the processing to the utilization of heads without this affecting the processing of the main products. However, it cannot be seen that the regulation in question has had a significant effect on this development, as there has been a similar development between the vessels that are exempt from the regulation and the vessels covered by the regulation. This is simply a value that many shipowners see an opportunity to retrieve, regardless of the regulation.

The main problems when it comes to the utilization of cod heads on board processing vessels are lack of space and limited freezing capacity. Therefore, there are opportunities to work the heads with the aim of reducing the scope and then only the most valuable parts. Now, for example, there are machines on the market that can process the most valuable products from the heads, such as gels, cheeks and lumps. By taking care of these three head products, the volume of what needs to be frozen and stored in trains can be reduced by 65% and still bring more value ashore than if the heads had been completely frozen. For the current Icelandic freezer fleet, there are opportunities in such processing. However, there is a great accumulated need for the renewal of the freezer fleet to meet new demands and challenges. Although their importance in the Icelandic fishing industry has diminished in recent years, there will always be a need for these vessels in the fleet, and especially to seek more distant targets. It can be expected that the design of new processing vessels and changes to the old ones will take into account requirements for improved utilization of all raw materials, heads and other by-products. The renewal of the freezer trawler fleet is therefore of great interest to the industry and the nation as the owner of the resource.

Matís has closely monitored head utilization on board processing vessels and assisted fishing companies in looking for opportunities in improved utilization of by-products. When Regulation 810/2011 was in the process of being reviewed, Matís' experts came to work on formulating the regulation, and they have subsequently been involved in research and development in that field. The AVS Fisheries Project Fund supported small projects in 2012 to assess the impact of the aforementioned regulation. This project has been carried out intermittently for the past three years and was formally completed with the publication of a Matís report which can be accessed here. Previously, the project had supported work on Gísli Eyland's master's project in Corporate Finance at the University of Iceland. Among the products of Gísli Eyland's project was an operating model for processing vessels where, among other things, it is possible to compare the profitability of different options for collecting and processing heads on board. This operating model can be accessed here. Gísli Eyland's project was also presented TAFT 2012 (Trans ‐ Atlantic Fisheries Technology Conference) with poster which attracted considerable attention.

The AVS Fisheries Project Fund is thanked for supporting the project.

For more information Jónas R. Viðarsson at Matís.