The group affected here is easy to draw a line around: anyone paying with a SNAP EBT card in one of the 18 states whose federal food-restriction waiver is still standing. Eight of those states already run the restriction at the checkout lane. The other ten switch on between the last day of this month and February 2028, each on a date its own agency has published.
Eight states where the register already refuses
Indiana and Utah moved first, on January 1, 2026. Idaho and Oklahoma followed on February 15, Louisiana on February 18, Texas on April 1, Florida on April 20, and Arkansas on July 1. In each of those states, a store’s terminal now declines the restricted items when the tender is SNAP and accepts the same items on cash or a debit card.
What counts as restricted is not identical from one state to the next. Every standing waiver bars at least one category of sweetened drink, and most of them cover candy as well. The federal waiver table maintained by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration spells out the differences line by line: Utah restricts soft drinks only, Idaho restricts soda and candy, Louisiana restricts soft drinks, energy drinks and candy, and Texas restricts sweetened drinks and candy. Arkansas has the broadest list of the eight, reaching soda, energy drinks, candy, and fruit and vegetable drinks with less than 50 percent natural juice.
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South Carolina on August 31, North Dakota the next morning
South Carolina is next in line. Its approval letter, signed December 10, 2025, permits the state to exclude candy, energy drinks, soft drinks and sweetened beverages from the SNAP definition of food, and runs for two years effective August 31, 2026. The federal agency approved a modification on August 3, 2026 that changed how the state defines a restricted soft drink, which is the version that takes effect at the register.
North Dakota starts the following day, September 1, covering sweetened beverages, energy drinks and candy. Montana comes in on September 30 with high-sugar beverages, energy drinks, candy and prepared desserts. Two more arrive on the same October 1 date: Ohio, which restricts sugar-sweetened beverages and all fountain drinks, and Virginia, which restricts sweetened beverages.
Five more start dates sit in 2027 and 2028
The remaining five standing waivers are further out. Wyoming begins February 1, 2027 on sweetened, carbonated beverages. Kansas and Missouri both begin February 15, 2027, Kansas on candy and soft drinks and Missouri on candy, prepared desserts and certain unhealthy beverages. Hawaii starts April 1, 2027 on soft drinks, and Nevada is last, on February 1, 2028, covering candy and sugar-sweetened beverages.
Those later dates are not idle. A state agency has to publish a restricted-item list a store can actually program, and every waiver in the table carries a retailer contact address or a state web page for exactly that purpose. A household in Kansas or Nevada will see nothing different at checkout until its own start date arrives.
Why the count is 18 and not the 23 on the federal table
USDA’s table lists 23 approved states, and five of them carry no implementation date at all. In the columns where Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia would show a start date, the agency instead prints a court order: “On June 22, 2026, the US District Court for the District of Columbia, in Aragon et al. v. Rollins et al., 1:26-cv-00861 (D.D.C.), ordered that FNA’s approval of the waiver be vacated and that the waiver’s implementation may not proceed.”
That leaves 18 waivers with live dates. For three of the five vacated states, Iowa, Nebraska and West Virginia, USDA has gone a step further and posted a retailer notice instructing stores to stop implementing the restriction. Nebraska’s entry is the clearest illustration of what was undone: its waiver had been written to restrict soda, soft drinks and energy drinks, then to add candy effective November 1, 2026. Neither stage takes effect.
The benefit amount does not change, only what the benefit buys
A waiver of this kind amends the statutory definition of food for SNAP purchase. It does not reduce an allotment, alter an issuance date, or change eligibility. A household in Texas or Florida receives the same monthly benefit it did before its start date; the restricted items simply stop drawing against it, and can still be bought with any other form of payment in the same transaction.
The practical friction lands on the line between a restricted item and a permitted one, which is why several states run separate inquiry channels for shoppers and for retailers. Florida operates a Healthy SNAP inquiry form, Idaho publishes a retailer information page, and Indiana runs different email addresses for stores and for participants. The federal table carrying all of it was last updated August 18, 2026, and it remains the operative record of which states are counted, which are stopped, and on what day each one begins.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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