Sponsor
Anna Luna
Representative · R-FL
Representative · R-FL
The bill tightens and clarifies which packaged sugary drinks and junk foods SNAP can buy—potentially improving diet quality for low-income children and simplifying USDA rules—while reducing beneficiaries' purchasing choices and imposing compliance costs and definitional disputes for recipients, retailers, and states.
Low-income SNAP households (including children and parents) will face clearer limits on buying sugary drinks and many junk foods with benefits, likely reducing access to those items and improving diet quality for children.
USDA and administering agencies gain clearer, standardized product categories to apply SNAP rules, reducing administrative ambiguity in benefit eligibility determinations.
SNAP recipients will lose the ability to buy popular low-cost items (e.g., sodas, candy, energy drinks) with benefits, reducing meal choice and perceived purchasing power.
Retailers and state agencies must change stocking practices, point-of-sale coding, and eligibility checks, creating compliance and administrative costs during implementation.
Eligibility rules based on ingredient order or marketing claims (e.g., 'marketed as' energy drinks) create edge cases and disputes that could delay benefits, cause confusion, or prompt appeals.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Revises the Food and Nutrition Act to exclude defined categories of sugar‑sweetened beverages, candy, high‑sugar snacks/desserts, and energy drinks from "eligible food."
Official title: To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to prohibit the purchase of nutritionally deficient foods with supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits.
Introduced February 13, 2026 by Anna Luna · Last progress February 13, 2026
Changes the federal definition of “eligible food” in the Food and Nutrition Act to exclude specific categories of high‑sugar and added‑sweetener products — including many sugar‑sweetened beverages, candy, certain high‑sugar snacks and desserts, and energy drinks — from the foods treated under that statute. The change takes effect 180 days after enactment. The amendment adds detailed ingredient‑ and product‑based definitions to identify excluded items (for example, drinks listing carbonated water and a caloric sweetener as the first two ingredients) and lists some narrow exclusions (e.g., milk, most >50% fruit juice). No new funding or program authorizations are created; the bill only revises statutory definitions that affect what counts as an "eligible food."