Sightings
Journalists & Researchers
The inspection data is public. Getting it shouldn't take weeks.
Normalized health inspection records across 30+ US cities â bulk export, API, or custom pull for your story.
Every health department publishes inspection records, but each city uses different portal software, violation codes, and data formats. Cross-city analysis requires manually downloading dozens of files, reconciling different schemas, and filing FOIA requests when historical data is missing. We've done that work once â so you don't have to every time you cover a food safety story.
The problem today
Sound familiar?
City portals are designed for consumers, not analysts
Most health department portals let you search one restaurant at a time. There's no bulk download, no API, and no historical archive past what they choose to display. Covering a chain with 50 locations across 8 cities takes days of manual work.
FOIA requests for bulk data take weeks and often come back as PDFs
When you need inspection records for a story publishing in 48 hours, a FOIA request isn't a tool. Many jurisdictions technically publish this data â but inaccessibly. We've already pulled and normalized it.
Cross-jurisdiction comparison is nearly impossible without normalization
Chicago uses letter grades. NYC uses letter grades with numeric scores. LA uses A/B/C grades with inspection points. Boston publishes violation counts but no grades. Comparing food safety performance across cities requires reconciling all of these into a single schema â we've built that schema.
Structured inspection data, ready for analysis
Government health inspection records from 30+ US jurisdictions, normalized to a single schema. Exportable as CSV or JSON. Available via API for ongoing monitoring or bulk download for one-time research.
Pricing
Transparent pricing. No hidden fees. Cancel anytime.
Story License
For a single story or investigation
- âOne establishment, chain, or jurisdiction
- âFull inspection history (2â5 years)
- âCSV or JSON export
- â90-day access to pull additional data as the story develops
- âMethodology doc and data dictionary included
- âSuitable for citation in published work
Annual Researcher
For ongoing food safety coverage
- âAll cities and jurisdictions
- âUnlimited queries and exports
- âREST API access
- âNew inspection alerts by chain or city
- âFull violation history across all covered jurisdictions
- âPriority turnaround on data questions
Newsroom License
For editorial teams and academic institutions
- âEverything in Annual Researcher
- âUp to 5 journalists or researchers
- âCustom data pulls on request (e.g., all closures in a city, 2019â2024)
- âSFTP delivery for large dataset transfers
- âDedicated Slack channel for data questions
- âAcademic use and citation policy included
âWe were covering a multistate outbreak tied to a fast-casual chain. Getting inspection records from seven jurisdictions normally takes a week of portal-clicking and three FOIA requests. This let us pull the full cross-state history in an afternoon.â
Request a free sample dataset
Tell us what you're investigating â chain name, city, or violation type â and we'll pull a sample of the relevant inspection records so you can see the data format and coverage before committing.