The Seafood Chain That Tests Its Fish In A Lab Before It Hits Your Plate

If you've ever gotten food poisoning after eating seafood in a restaurant, the experience has probably taught you that not every place has the kind of quality standard you can trust. Between the risks of early spoilage and heavy metal contamination, seafood is a tricky thing to order, even more so when you're trying out a new place. One particular seafood restaurant, however, has built a reputation as the champion of quality by meticulously testing the items it serves in an in-house lab: Legal Sea Foods.

As one of the best seafood chain restaurants, Legal has been in the hospitality business since the late '60s and has even served its iconic clam chowder at multiple presidential inaugurations. What sets the chain apart from other restaurants, though, is the obsession with freshness and quality; its catchy tagline says, "If it isn't fresh, it isn't Legal!" The sourcing of every seafood item on the menu is transparently disclosed, prioritizing local catch and countries with the safest fishing practices. Freshness is the first step towards ensuring peak quality, but the second step is the independent testing.

According to the New York Times, the seafood at Legal is consistently checked for temperature throughout the process, making sure it's always kept cold. Bacteria, histamine, and toxin levels in the catch are also independently examined, giving the restaurant's customers peace of mind regarding the safety.

In 2023, Legal Sea Foods embarked on a new business venture beyond just its physical restaurant locations, introducing an online store to the mix — a natural evolution many restaurants have adopted since the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the customers' preferences towards delivery. This venture opened a whole new area of safety standards, so the company announced the building of a 30,000-square-foot Innovation Center, which includes a separate venue for quality control. In a statement to Seafood Source, the restaurant said it saw "the need for a more modern space that would provide efficiency, speed, and quality assurance of its restaurant products and the introduction of e-commerce." In other words, as Legal Sea Foods grows as a chain, so must its quality control facilities.

What this means for the customers is they can continue to trust the Legal brand, whether they're eating out or ordering in. Given that Legal Sea Foods has one of the best kids menus among chain restaurants, those quality standards come with high stakes for many families, something the company doesn't take lightly. The independent lab testing is not required by the governing bodies — but Legal Sea Foods remains committed to serving seafood whose safety checks far surpass the standard national protocols.