SNAP Healthy Food Retailers

The changes will take effect early 2026.

Florida made this change to better align SNAP with its intended purpose: providing low-income households access to a more nutritious diet to help alleviate hunger and combat malnutrition. By excluding soda, energy drinks, candy, and ultra-processed shelf-stable prepared desserts, the state is taking a proactive step to ensure SNAP benefits are used for more nourishing foods.

• Soda – including regular, diet and artificially sweetened soda.
• "Energy drinks" are drinks that contain 65 milligrams or more of caffeine per 8 ounces and are marketed to boost energy or alertness (like Monster™, Red Bull™, and Celsius™).
• Candy – including chocolate bars, gummies, licorice, hard candies, and similar items.
• Ultra-processed prepared desserts – ultra-processed, shelf-stable, pre-packaged sweet foods that are ready-to-eat such as snack cakes (like Twinkies®, Ho Hos®, and Swiss Rolls), packaged sweets (like Sno Balls® and Oatmeal Creme Pies®), and other products from brands like Little Debbie, Entenmann’s and Tastykake.

“Soda” refers to beverages made with carbonated water that are sweetened with added sugars or artificial sweeteners. This includes regular and diet sodas like regular Coca-Cola®, 7Up®, Diet Pepsi®, Diet Coke®, Coke Zero®, and Sprite Zero®.

SNAP benefits can still be used to purchase plain or naturally flavored sparkling waters such as LaCroix®, Waterloo®, Polar®, and Bubly®, or drinks that contain more than 50% juice or have less than 5 grams of added sugar per serving.

“Energy drinks” are drinks that contain 65 milligrams or more of caffeine per 8 ounces and are marketed to boost energy or alertness like Monster™, Red Bull™, and Celsius™.

Coffee, tea, and sports drinks like Gatorade® or Powerade® are not considered energy drinks and can still be purchased with SNAP benefits.

“Candy” includes products made from sugar or artificial sweeteners combined with chocolate, fruit, nuts, caramel, gummies, and hard candies or other ingredients or flavorings in the form of bars, drops, or pieces.

This includes bars like Hershey’s®, Snickers®, and Milky Way®, gummies like Haribo®, Sour Patch Kids®, and Twizzlers®, hard candies like Jolly Ranchers®, Lifesavers®, and lollipops, candy pieces like M&M's®, Starburst®, and Skittles®, and items like chocolate-covered nuts, toffee, and mints.

“Ultra-processed prepared desserts" means a processed, shelf-stable, ready-to-eat, pre-packaged sweet food intended for immediate consumption without any further preparation. This would include foods mostly made out of “chemically” modified substances extracted from foods, along with additives to enhance taste, texture, appearance, and durability, with minimal whole foods.

This includes snack cakes like Twinkies®, Ho Hos®, and Swiss Rolls, packaged sweets like Sno Balls® and Oatmeal Creme Pies®, and other products from brands like Little Debbie, Entenmann’s and Tastykake.

Freshly prepared baked goods can still be purchased with SNAP benefits.

This change only impacts SNAP benefits used in Florida. Other states may exclude the same or different items. Retailers should remain engaged with each state’s SNAP agency for additional information.

The specific steps may vary depending on your POS system. Consult your system's manual or support resources for detailed instructions to ensure system changes are implemented by early 2026.

All SNAP retailers in Florida are required to implement these changes.

The Department understands that some retailers may have an online presence across the country. For online retailers operating in Florida, restrictions should be applied to SNAP purchases where the delivery address is in Florida. This ensures the new SNAP Healthy Food changes are enforced for all Florida SNAP households regardless of where the order is placed.

The Department will communicate these changes to SNAP recipients through various communication channels. As a USDA-approved SNAP retailer, you play a key role in helping us make these changes successful by communicating with your customers. A downloadable Retailer Toolkit will be added this page soon. The toolkit will contain resources to help communicate these changes with your customers.