Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia are set to begin blocking soda, candy or both from SNAP purchases on Nov. 1, 2026. The four states join eight others whose start dates have already passed, which puts 12 states on the list at that point, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food-restriction waiver table. The table was last updated on Oct. 13, 2026.
The eight states with earlier dates are Indiana and Utah (Jan. 1), Idaho and Oklahoma (Feb. 15), Louisiana (Feb. 18), Texas (April 1), Florida (April 20) and Arkansas (July 1). USDA labels each date a “target implementation date,” meaning the day the state plans to begin. Each state asked USDA for a waiver that lets it limit what SNAP benefits can buy.
For a household on SNAP in one of those 12 states, the question is what the card will still pay for at the register and whether anything else about the benefit moves with it. USDA’s table describes only the purchase limits. It does not list any change to the monthly amount, the renewal date or the reporting duties that keep a case open.
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What the four November states restrict
Each state wrote its own list, so the rules differ at the register. Montana’s covers high-sugar beverages, energy drinks, candy and prepared desserts. North Dakota’s covers sweetened beverages, energy drinks and candy. South Carolina’s covers candy, energy drinks, soft drinks and sweetened beverages.
Virginia’s entry is the narrowest of the four. USDA lists it as “sweetened beverages” only, with no candy. A Virginia shopper should expect the soda side of the headline, not the candy side, from Nov. 1.
What the first eight states already restrict
Arkansas covers soda, fruit and vegetable drinks with under 50% natural juice, energy drinks and candy. Florida covers soda, energy drinks, candy and prepared desserts. Idaho covers soda and candy, Indiana covers soft drinks and candy, and Louisiana covers soft drinks, energy drinks and candy.
Oklahoma covers soft drinks and candy, and Texas covers sweetened drinks and candy. Utah is the lightest, listing soft drinks alone. A shopper moving between neighboring states can face a different list at each checkout.
Which states come after November?
Nebraska is next, with soda, soft drinks and energy drinks scheduled to be restricted on Dec. 1, 2026 and candy added on March 1, 2027. Five more start in 2027: Wyoming on Feb. 1, Kansas and Missouri on Feb. 15, and Hawaii and Ohio on April 1. Nevada is the furthest out, at Feb. 1, 2028.
Counting every row, USDA’s table now holds 23 states. That is 12 in force or starting by Nov. 1, Nebraska on Dec. 1, five in 2027, Nevada in 2028 and four that a court has stopped.
Why are Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia stuck?
A federal court in Washington vacated USDA’s approval of those four waivers on June 22, 2026, in Aragon v. Rollins, No. 1:26-cv-00861 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. USDA’s table marks all four as vacated and lists no start date for any of them. For Iowa and West Virginia, the table also records a notice telling retailers to stop implementing the restriction.
Nothing on USDA’s page says whether an appeal will restore the four waivers, so the start dates for those states remain blank.
Do the soda and candy limits touch SNAP renewals?
USDA’s table does not say they do. The restriction is a rule about the checkout, and renewals and change reports still run on the state’s own notices. The dates that decide whether the card is loaded in November are the ones printed on the state’s own notices, not the ones on USDA’s waiver list.
Will your state’s SNAP soda and candy date change anything on your card?
A soda-and-candy rule is one of several SNAP changes landing state by state, and USDA’s own list has already lost four states to a court order. A household that follows only the grocery rules can still overlook the recertification and change-reporting dates that keep the benefit coming.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer pairs a renewal and reporting calendar with 51 state packs, so a household can set its own state’s dates beside its rules, including the SNAP work-rule time limit and who is exempt. The kit does not cover the soda and candy lists; it tracks the dates that stay with the case.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
