Long John Silver’s – Innovation, Tradition, and a Partnership for the highest quality
Tradition preserved, quality assured
Long John Silver‘s (LJS), founded in 1969 in Lexington, Kentucky, is a major American fast-food chain specializing in seafood. The brand has built up a loyal clientele through high quality sea food and traditional dishes. LJS takes its name from a character in Robert Louis Stevenson’s adventure novel Treasure Island. Hence, the restaurants feature nautical-themed, Cape Cod style decor to create a maritime atmosphere. Testo supports Long John Silver’s food safety management with the latest Testo Saveris digital quality management system.
The Customer
The first Long John Silver’s opened in 1969 in Lexington, Kentucky. From there on, the company grew to an international chain with a high three-digit number of locations in the USA. In recent years, the company has also focused on growth in the Asia-Pacific region and expanded in Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand. Furthermore, Long John Silver‘s has been present with franchisees in Singapore since 1983. In total, more than 10,000 people work for Long John Silver‘s.
The menu at Long John Silver’s is centered around fried and breaded seafood, with some of its most popular offerings including fish and chips, fried shrimp, and chicken planks. There are also combo platters featuring a variety of seafood, as well as sides like hush puppies, coleslaw, rice, or green beans. Mac and Cheese is also one of the customer favorites. In recent years, the menu has expanded to include innovative meals like fish tacos and bowls featuring grilled fish or shrimp. While the offerings may vary slightly by region, the focus in all restaurants remains on high-quality, fresh seafood offered at affordable rates.
Sustainable Sources: The fish and sea food of Long John Silver’s, mainly wild-caught pollock, salmon, and North Pacific cod come from American waters around Alaska, taking into account sustainable fishing practices that do not place excessive strain on natural resources.
The value proposition
Long John Silver’s prides itself on several core values. These include a commitment to freshness and quality, with seafood sourced from sustainable suppliers, as well as affordability, making seafood accessible to a broad audience. The chain also embraces tradition, evoking nostalgia with its classic recipes and ambiance reminiscent of traditional American fish houses. At the same time, the company is open to innovation, experimenting with healthier dishes, grilled options, and digital ordering platforms to appeal to modern consumers.
The Challenge
Fresh fish and seafood have always been highly sensitive products that must be stored and processed under particularly strict conditions. Since these foods are the focus at Long John Silver‘s, the company places particular emphasis on monitoring and controlling highly sensitive and risky products.In a process that is based on freezer-to-fryer, the procedures must be followed precisely - from the receipt of goods, through storage in the cold rooms, to the kitchen. The topic of frying oil analysis also plays a major role there: good results can only be achieved with high-quality frying oil. Standardized procedures and clear processes guarantee efficiency and quality assurance in the kitchen, which in turn ensure the reproducibility of positive customer experiences.
In order to ensure the highest possible freshness and food safety, all Long John Silver‘s restaurants work with the freezer-to-fryer principle.
The Solution
LJS has been a valued Testo customer since September 2022 and relies on Testo Saveris‘ fully digital quality management system to make its operations efficient and ensure the highest quality standards. In the incoming goods area, the testo 104-IR BT infrared penetration thermometer ensures that particularly sensitive goods such as fish, seafood and vegetables are always delivered at the safe and permissible temperature. The device‘s data is transmitted automatically via Bluetooth.
Another central control unit is a powerful tablet that guides employees through the defined processes, alerts them to deviations and asks them to initiate the previously defined corrective measures. All data is stored securely and synchronized in the cloud. This means that it is transparently prepared via the dashboard and can be viewed by the company headquarters or the quality manager, for example, at any time and anywhere. So many locations can be tracked from a central location without the quality manager having to be on site.
The system also helps to guide new employees safely through the defined process steps. Management can rely on checks being carried out correctly and at the right time. Even in the event of an audit, for example by regulatory authorities, the centrally evaluated data provides a reliable basis for proving process conformity.
“Having a solution like Testo gives us the possibility to be future-forward.”
John Rankin
·Senior Director Charter Foods
How frying oil can be used economically in the best possible way using TPM measurement
The quality of fried food is constantly in focus: If this is not right, then not only will the guest‘s anticipation be disappointed. In fact, all efforts to ensure hospitality in terms of ambience and service will be in vain. The employees in the kitchens of the LJS restaurants check the quality of the frying oil used with daily checks. The key indicator here is the TPM value.
During frying, various chemical reactions produce not only free fatty acids but also mono- and diglycerides, polymeric triglycerides, and oxidative degradation products such as aldehydes and ketones. These are summarized as polar components, total polar materials, or TPM for short, and are used as a measure of the degree of decomposition of the fat. Food that is fried in used oil forms a dark crust very quickly and also absorbs a lot of fat. French fries, for example, become hollow on the inside.
By changing the frying oil (partially) on time, Long John Silver‘s continuously ensures the quality of the fried food. At the same time, the optimal service life of the oil ensures the best possible cost-effectiveness without any loss of quality. Thanks to reliable and seamless monitoring from anywhere and at any time, Testo Saveris enables proactive management of food quality and safety at Long John Silver‘s.
