Dr. Marion Nestle, longtime NYU professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, with additional faculty roles at UC San Francisco and Cornell, is best known for analyzing the intersections of food, politics, and health, often exposing how government policy, corporate lobbying, and food industry marketing shape what we eat.
SNAP waivers: bad for business?
Here’s what got me started on this one: SNAP waivers could lead to $830M sales loss for soda, candy, energy drinks: By the end of 2026, state-specific restrictions are expected to impact one-third of participants in the government food assistance program, Numerator found.
Redirected or reduced spending by SNAP households could lead to sales losses of $430 million for soda, $300 million for candy, and $100 million for energy drinks across the 19 states that will have waivers in place by the end of the year, according to the firm’s research.
SNAP waivers refer to rules about what SNAP recipients can buy with their electronic benefit cards. Without waivers, they cannot buy alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, cannabis edibles and drinks, supplements, hot food, and non-food items.
Waivers add sugar-sweetened beverages and some junk foods to this list.
Up until this administration, the USDA turned down requests by cities (New York) and states (Maine, Nevada) for such waivers.
Now, the USDA has granted waivers to 23 states so far, and is encouraging others to request them.
Food retailers are the beneficiaries of SNAP EBT cards. SNAP recipients buy a lot of soda (as do lots of other people). In waiver states, they will have to use their own money to buy soda.
Will waivers reduce overall sales? Retailers think so.
Will waivers reduce consumption of sugary drinks, and improve the health of SNAP recipients?
Let’s hope these states are sponsoring research to find out.
The post SNAP waivers: bad for business? appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle.
Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003 and from which she officially retired in September 2017. She is also Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky (2012) and from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College (2016). In 2023, she was awarded The Edinburgh Medal (for science and society).
