If you or someone in your family uses SNAP benefits, the rules about what you can buy at the checkout line are changing state by state, and the details vary enough that it’s easy to get confused about what actually applies where you live. This is one of the Make America Healthy Again movement’s most concrete policy wins to date, and it’s playing out in real time across grocery stores nationwide.
Here’s the complete, up-to-date breakdown: which states have restrictions, exactly what’s banned, what’s still allowed, and what happened when a federal judge stepped in and blocked several of these waivers entirely.
Watch the Full Investigation Before You Read On
Before getting into the state-by-state details, there’s a documentary that covers the broader MAHA policy push, including this SNAP reform effort, in more depth than any single article can. Worth watching alongside this piece.
Click here to watch the MAHA film free
Click here to watch the MAHA film free
How This Started
In early 2025, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders became the first to formally request a waiver from the USDA to remove soda and candy from her state’s SNAP-eligible purchase list, appearing alongside Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to announce it. Indiana and Idaho quickly followed with their own announcements. Indiana’s rollout included a press conference with both HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, with Kennedy framing the changes as part of a broader push to reverse chronic disease trends tied to the American food system.
By December 2025, the number of states with approved waivers had grown steadily, and reporting confirmed that a total of 18 states would be able to block SNAP purchases of items like soda, candy, energy drinks, and desserts beginning in 2026. Since then, additional states have continued to receive approval, pushing the total higher into 2026.
The Full List of States With Approved SNAP Restrictions
As of the most recent USDA approvals, the following states have secured waivers restricting SNAP purchases of soda, candy, and related items:
Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
That brings the total number of states with approved waivers to 22, implementing restrictions on a rolling basis between 2026 and 2028, depending on each state’s specific timeline.
What’s Actually Restricted, State by State
This is where the details matter enormously, because “banned from SNAP” doesn’t mean the same thing in every state. A few examples:
Arkansas: Excludes all types of soda, including diet and zero-calorie versions, fruit and vegetable drinks with less than 50 percent natural juice, other sweetened beverages, and candy, including confections made with flour. Notably, the restriction does not apply to flavored water, carbonated flavored water, or sports drinks. Arkansas also used its waiver request to add rotisserie chicken as a newly eligible item.
Texas: Restricts sweetened drinks and candy, with the ban taking effect April 1, 2026.
Florida: One of the broadest restrictions currently active, extending beyond soda and candy to also cover energy drinks and prepared desserts.
Missouri: Restricts candy, prepared desserts, soda, and drink mixes or concentrates with low natural-juice content, starting in 2026.
Ohio: Bans sugar-sweetened beverages specifically, beginning October 1, 2026.
Kansas: Will prohibit candy and soft drinks starting February 15, 2027, a later timeline than many other states.
Wyoming: Restricts sweetened carbonated beverages starting February 1, 2027.
Nevada: Has the longest runway of any state so far, with its restriction on both candy and sugar-sweetened beverages not taking effect until February 1, 2028.
The pattern across nearly all of these waivers is consistent: soda and candy are the two most commonly targeted categories, with several states also adding energy drinks or prepared desserts, and definitions of “candy” typically excluding items containing flour as an ingredient, which is why products like candy bars with a cookie or wafer base sometimes remain eligible while pure sugar candies do not.
What’s Still Allowed
Despite the headlines, these waivers are narrowly targeted, not a sweeping overhaul of SNAP-eligible groceries. Items that remain fully eligible under every approved waiver include:
- Fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables
- Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs
- Dairy products, including milk, cheese, and yogurt
- Bread and grain products
- Most snack foods that aren’t classified as candy, including chips and crackers
- Flavored water and sports drinks, in states like Arkansas that specifically excluded them from restriction
- Baby food and formula
For families navigating a changing list of eligible items, the safest approach at checkout remains checking directly with your state’s SNAP administrator or reviewing your state’s specific waiver documentation, since point-of-sale systems are generally updated to automatically flag restricted items, but definitions can vary enough between states that assuming your previous shopping list still applies isn’t reliable.
The Court Ruling That Complicated Everything
Just as this policy was expanding, a significant legal challenge emerged. On June 22, 2026, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in Aragon v. Rollins that the USDA had exceeded its legal authority by approving these food-restriction waivers under a legal provision meant for testing SNAP’s administrative efficiency, not for pursuing dietary or health outcomes.
That ruling specifically voided the waivers in five states: Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Importantly, the ruling does not affect the other states with approved waivers, since it only applies to the states named as defendants in that specific case. Texas, for example, is not part of the litigation, so its restriction remains fully in effect regardless of how the appeal plays out. The USDA has indicated it plans to appeal the ruling, which means the legal status of these five states’ restrictions could still change again.
If you live in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, or West Virginia, this means you can currently continue using SNAP benefits to purchase soda and candy as usual, at least until the appeal is resolved one way or another.
The Nutrition Case For and Against These Restrictions
Supporters of these waivers point to genuinely serious health statistics. Arkansas Governor Sanders has cited that roughly one-third of her state’s population has diabetes or is pre-diabetic, framing the restrictions as a direct response to diet-related chronic disease. Kennedy has similarly argued that reforming what SNAP dollars can purchase is a meaningful lever for improving public health outcomes at scale, given that SNAP serves over 40 million Americans.
Critics raise a different, equally serious concern: access, not knowledge, is often the real barrier to healthy eating for low-income families. Health policy expert Kavelle Christie has pointed out that in many rural areas and food deserts, convenience stores and fast-food outlets are often the only accessible options, meaning fresh produce and healthier meals aren’t a matter of preference but of availability and cost. Restricting purchase categories, critics argue, does nothing to address that underlying access problem, and could leave some families with fewer easy options in areas where healthier alternatives simply aren’t available nearby.
Both of these things can be true at once: reducing sugar-sweetened beverage and candy consumption is a legitimate public health goal with real evidence behind it, and removing purchasing flexibility without addressing food access in underserved areas is a legitimate concern about how that goal is being pursued.
Why “Candy Made With Flour” Is Exempt in Several States
One detail that trips up a lot of families is the flour exemption written into several state waivers, including Arkansas’s. Under this definition, a plain sugar candy like a lollipop or gummy candy counts as restricted, while a candy bar containing flour as an ingredient, think of products with a cookie, wafer, or pretzel component, may still qualify as SNAP-eligible depending on how a specific state defines the category.
This isn’t a loophole so much as it reflects how SNAP’s underlying federal statute has long defined “food” versus “candy” for eligibility purposes generally, a definition that predates the current wave of state waivers by decades. States requesting these waivers largely built their restrictions around that existing federal framework rather than writing an entirely new definition from scratch, which is part of why the flour distinction shows up so consistently across different states’ rules, even though it can feel arbitrary to shoppers trying to figure out what’s actually restricted at checkout.
How Retailers Are Adjusting
Grocery retailers and point-of-sale system providers have had to update their software to automatically flag restricted items at checkout in states with active waivers. In most cases, this means an EBT card will simply be declined for the specific restricted item, while the rest of a transaction using other payment methods or eligible SNAP items proceeds normally. Some retailers have reported early confusion, particularly with private label or regional products that aren’t clearly categorized in national databases, which is part of why keeping a receipt and checking with store staff or your state’s SNAP hotline remains a useful practice during the early rollout period in any newly restricted state.
What This Means for Your Family’s Grocery Budget
If your state has an active restriction, or will soon, a few practical adjustments can help ease the transition:
- Stock up on eligible staples before a new restriction takes effect, particularly shelf-stable items you rely on regularly.
- Explore whole-food alternatives to sweetened drinks, since flavored water and, in some states, sports drinks remain eligible and can help ease the adjustment for kids used to soda.
- Check your specific state’s exact list, since definitions of “candy” and “dessert” vary meaningfully between states, and what’s restricted in Texas may not be restricted the same way in Missouri.
- Reach out to your state’s SNAP office directly if you’re unsure whether a specific product is still eligible, rather than guessing at checkout.
Building Healthier Habits Within a Tighter List
For families adjusting to these changes, focusing on nutrient-dense, whole-food staples that remain fully SNAP-eligible is one of the most effective ways to make the most of a grocery budget under the new rules. Beyond what SNAP covers directly, many households have also found it helpful to fill nutritional gaps with affordable, foundational supplementation.
HealthyCell offers a broad-spectrum daily multivitamin designed to help cover common nutritional gaps, which can be particularly useful for families adjusting their grocery lists during a transition like this one. Use code healthywildfree at checkout.
For households looking for clean, whole-food snack alternatives to replace restricted candy and sweetened items, Paleovalley offers grass-fed meat sticks, superfood bars, and other minimally processed snack options that can serve as a genuinely healthier swap for kids used to candy or sugary snacks. Use code pvpartners at checkout.
The Bottom Line
This policy landscape is still actively shifting, with new state approvals, a live court appeal, and staggered implementation timelines stretching out to 2028 in some states. The most reliable way to know exactly what applies to your household right now is checking your specific state’s current waiver status directly, since a restriction that’s active in one neighboring state may not yet apply, or may already be blocked by the courts, in another.
We’ll continue to update this list as more states receive approval, as the Aragon v. Rollins appeal moves forward, and as implementation dates arrive throughout 2026 and 2027.
