The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s partnership with the Make America Healthy Again initiative is part of the Trump administration’s effort to promote healthy eating for all Americans. On Wednesday, the USDA issued waivers to four states with restrictions on what Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients can purchase with their benefits.

Which states will receive SNAP restriction waivers?

Kansas, Nevada, Ohio and Wyoming are among 18 states that implemented SNAP restrictions on purchases. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins signed the waivers, encouraging individuals and companies in the private sector to maintain healthier options for consumers to buy, according to Grocery Dive, USA Today and a news release.

“The Make America Healthy Again movement has brought together the private sector, including retailers, the medical community, farmers, rancher, producers, and the media to play a key role in encouraging healthier families and healthier communities,” Rollins said in a news release statement.

Rollins works alongside U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and MAHA creator Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Ben Carson, who serves as national nutrition advisor at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to ensure Americans are purchasing healthy foods using taxpayer dollars.

What food items are banned in these states?

While the restriction waivers vary for each state, most of them ban soft drinks, sodas and candy from being purchased with SNAP benefits.

The following items are banned under each state’s SNAP food restriction waivers:

“For over 12 years, minimum stocking standards in retailers have been debated. This impending rule is practical, doable, and will provide families with new, more healthful choices no matter where they shop,” Carson said in a news release statement.

Each state has its own definition of banned items

President Donald Trump began issuing waivers in 2025, despite no change to the law, per USA Today. The initiative is part of the USDA’s pilot project authority to determine the effectiveness of excluding certain items from being purchased under SNAP.

Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia have been granted waivers.

While many of the states focus on candy and soda, others emphasize energy drinks or juice. However, each state has its own definition of what foods are banned.

“Every state has their own definition of what is candy, what is a sugary beverage. So now you have businesses that have locations across the country that have to literally update their (point of sale) systems in every state to adhere to specific restrictions for that state,” professor Tyson-Lord Gray, who teaches at Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, told USA Today.

While the move hasn’t yet been signed into legislation, the Trump administration has encouraged states to apply for the waivers to receive funding as part of the Big Beautiful tax bill signed in July.