Your Access is Limited to Restaurant Inspections in Connecticut

Do you get the feeling that we're being duped into eating garbage? I do, sometimes, when I can't get the latest Inspection reports for area restaurants online. I'm so frustrated with cities around Connecticut that no longer post their latest health inspection reports. Have you tried? It's nearly impossible.

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I, like a lot of you, have just binged The Bear on Hulu, and a major plot point in the second episode is the fictional restaurant receiving a grade of C during a routine health inspection. It's a perceived disaster, with the characters terrified that their version of a mediocre Scarlet letter would scare potential customers away. It's warranted, right? When you spend as much as we all do eating outside of our homes, you expect the restaurant or food truck to have an A rating, right? There are so many hidden dangers in the back of the house when it comes to food service, and these unannounced health inspections somewhat keep the playing field level for us in awareness.

Try to look up the latest restaurant health inspection scores for Waterbury, Stamford,  or Danbury right now on their official city websites. The latest ones that you'll find are from 2020. Some areas of Connecticut have been keeping up inspections through the pandemic, the Naugatuck Valley Health District website has the latest reports for Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Naugatuck, Seymour, and Shelton. But, they're pretty much alone.

What's happening? Has a legal precedent been achieved here that considers posting restaurant inspections scores libel? Did the pandemic's toll on small business mount enough pressure from the remaining operators to have inspectors turn a blind eye? You can still get the reports here in Connecticut if you go to your town hall and health department offices and ask specifically by name. Why has it become nearly impossible for the general public to get these reports online in Connecticut?