A new seafood restaurant will serve live oysters and clams from their tanks. What do they need from the health department?

To serve live oysters and clams from their tanks, the seafood restaurant must obtain a health department variance. This requirement is essential because serving live seafood involves specific health and safety regulations, including those governing the handling and storage of shellfish to prevent foodborne illnesses. A variance allows the establishment to operate under conditions or procedures that differ from standard health code requirements, provided they can demonstrate they meet equivalent safety measures.

When the health department issues a variance, it typically involves an examination of the restaurant's methods for sourcing, storing, and serving live shellfish. This step ensures that the restaurant has the appropriate measures in place to maintain the quality and safety of the seafood, such as monitoring water quality and maintaining proper temperatures.

The other options presented, while related to food safety, do not directly fulfill the requirement for serving live shellfish. An air gap is a plumbing measure to prevent contamination, MSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheet which deals with chemical safety rather than food regulations, and while a sanitized tank is important for cleanliness, it does not replace the need for official authorization from health authorities to serve live seafood.