Regulators overseeing Vermont’s food and lodging establishments didn’t always investigate complaints in a timely manner and sometimes failed to determine whether violations were corrected, according to a new report from the state auditor’s office.

The Vermont Department of Health’s Food and Lodging Program received more than 1,000 complaints between 2022 and 2024. Those complaints included allegations of bed bugs, contaminated food equipment and a deli selling expired food, the report said .

The auditor’s office randomly selected 45 complaints from that time period and found that about a third of the time, inspectors didn’t follow up on the complaints in the time frame required under the department’s policies. And among the most critical of those allegations, seven out of the 10 weren’

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