Keynote Address: Iceland’s Use of Captured Seafood By-Products

JÓNAS R. VIÐARSSON

Director of Division of Value Creation, Matís

BIOGRAPHY

Jonas R. Vidarsson is the Director of division of value creation at Matís ltd. in Iceland, which is a governmentally owned non-profit limited company working on research and innovation in food & biotech value chains. Jonas holds degrees in Fisheries scenes, Environmental science and Natural resource management. He has in addition long hands-on experience in the fishing sector, both in processing and as a fisherman. Jonas has been involved in a large number of national and international research & innovation projects, many of which have aimed at creating value from unwanted catches and side streams from processing. Jonas’s expertise includes studies related to the entire value chain of different food products and circular economy, environmental impacts of fisheries and seafood production, environmental labelling, Life Cycle Assessment, traceability, logistics and research on various yield- & quality factors in the value chain of seafood. He has also worked on fisheries management, aquaculture, climate change impacts and adaptation, fishing gear, decision support systems, stakeholder interaction, dissemination and knowledge transfer. Matís ltd. has around 100 employees with multidisciplinary competences in food research and innovation. The company has on average around 200 active research & innovation projects and operates in addition laboratories, pilot production facilities, aquaculture research station and more.

Iceland’s Use of Captured Seafood By-Products

The Icelandic seafood industry is considered a world leader in utilisation of unwanted catches and side streams for processing. The by-products created range from low value animal feed and fertiliser, to high value human food, textiles, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. The presentation will seek to explain why Iceland has advanced more than most other countries in utilisation of by-products, give examples of by-product “success stories” and provide an overview of some ongoing initiatives to increase utilisation and value of captured seafood rest raw materials.