AP Photo/Allison Dinner
Americans will no longer be able to use food stamps to purchase various types of junk food in Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, and West Virginia starting January 1.
These five states are the first of at least eighteen who have enacted restrictions on the kinds of foods that can be bought using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP.
The “junk food” restrictions were put forward by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins earlier in December. They mark a further move in Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative which has been warmly embraced by President Donald Trump.
“We cannot continue a system that forces taxpayers to fund programs that make people sick and then pay a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create,” Kennedy said in a statement.
The first restrictions that will take effect at the start of 2026 will ban SNAP purchases of soft drinks in Utah and West Virginia as well as in Nebraska, which will also ban SNAP purchases of energy drinks. Iowa’s restrictions will include soda, candy, and some types of prepared foods.
The restrictions work by amending the definition of what constitutes a “food for purchase” under the SNAP program, a move many governors who have enacted such waivers have spoken out in support of.
“Thank you to President Trump and Secretary Rollins for approving our light-touch, common-sense approach to strengthen the SNAP program by promoting healthier outcomes for South Carolinians,” said South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster (R) in a statement. “By encouraging families to purchase healthy, nutritious food – and not junk food – we ensure federal taxpayer dollars are used to their maximum benefit and keep South Carolina at the forefront of the effort to Make America Healthy Again.”
Since federal food assistance policy was first put in place in 1964 – and later authorized by the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 – SNAP benefits have been able to be used for “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” except alcohol, tobacco, and pre-made hot foods.
Previous proposals from lawmakers to limit the types of food SNAP covers have been rejected due to USDA research that claimed such changes could be costly, complicated to enforce, and might not actually have an effect on obesity or shopping habits.
The states that have approved some form of SNAP waiver are Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
