The new SNAP retailer rule falls short — but we can still fix it

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins wants you to think a momentous change is coming to a food retailer near you. At the press conference announcing the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Rollins highlighted the Department of Agriculture’s work to double the staple food stocking requirements that roughly 250,000 participating retailers must comply with to continue accepting SNAP benefits.

According to Rollins, “This means healthier options will be in reach for all American families, regardless of circumstance, at levels never seen before in our country.” In an op-ed, she claims that the forthcoming policy would require SNAP retailers to offer twice as much “nutrient-dense” food.

Unfortunately, this is misleading. As written, the administration’s new proposed stocking standards rule won’t necessarily promote healthy food access. But it’s not too late to fix that.

The Department of Agriculture’s proposed rule would expand the variety of food items available to shoppers by increasing the number of different staple foods required to be offered at SNAP retailers from 12 to 28. This positive change will particularly affect smaller outlets such as convenience stores and gas stations, which will need to ensure a sufficient selection of foods from each of four staple food subcategories — fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy, and protein — are in stock at all times.

However, the proposed rule does nothing to ensure that retailers won’t just comply by offering a wider variety of unhealthy ultra-processed foods. Under the current proposal, foods can have unlimited amounts of added sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and refined carbohydrates, and still count toward the staple food quota.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest came up with an example set of 28 foods that complies with the proposed requirements. It includes foods like canned peaches in heavy syrup, Fruity Pebbles cereal, cinnamon roll-flavored yogurt, and SPAM. So much for the administration’s new slogan of “eat real food!”

Americans’ overconsumption of added sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and refined carbs is fueling a chronic disease crisis. The average U.S. adult consumes 40 percent more added sugar, 40 percent more sodium, and 40 percent more saturated fat each day than recommended by federal nutrition guidelines. We also consume (on average) six servings of refined grain and only one serving of whole grain each day, despite recommendations to focus on whole grains and limit refined carbs.

These dietary patterns are linked to increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and certain cancers. But we can’t cut back on unhealthy foods unless healthier alternatives are available everywhere we shop.

There’s a simple fix to ensure the final SNAP stocking standards will actually promote healthy food access: add nutrition requirements. USDA should not allow products high in added sugar, sodium or saturated fat (i.e., that contain more than 20 percent Daily Value of any of these per serving) to count toward the 28 food varieties used to meet minimum stocking requirements. And for staple foods in the grain category, it should require that they be more than 50 percent whole grain.

Critics of stronger SNAP stocking standards say the standards could create food deserts for some at the expense of increasing healthy options for others. In comments to the Department of Agriculture, the National Association of Convenience Stores threatened that the proposal “would likely push tens of thousands of stores in our industry out of SNAP, dramatically narrowing the number of stores where SNAP beneficiaries can purchase food.”

Maintaining widespread retailer participation in SNAP is certainly essential to promoting healthy food access. But there’s no need to pit food access against nutrition security. According to USDA, a majority of small-format food retailers already stock enough foods in each staple food category to comply with the new standards. And research shows that small stores could comply with staple food nutrition requirements, especially if the Department of Agriculture provides sufficient time and helps develop the infrastructure necessary to implement new requirements. Rather than lobbying against policies to promote healthy food access, retailers should partner with the department to make these changes possible.

Other stakeholders have argued that now is not the time for SNAP stocking standard updates, considering all the other changes to SNAP underway. Congress recently passed a disastrous budget bill that implements the largest cuts in the program’s history.

Meanwhile, SNAP retailers are struggling to navigate a new patchwork of state laws restricting various non-nutritious foods from SNAP. These strains on SNAP underscore the need for the Department of Agriculture to include a robust plan for technical assistance to retailers in the final stocking standards rule, and for Congress to restore federal SNAP funding.

That said, the proposed rule represents a missed opportunity to leverage stocking standards towards achieving the Make America Healthy Again Commission’s goal for SNAP to “reorient the program towards better nutrition.”

If this administration truly cares about making Americans healthier, the Department of Agriculture will issue a final stocking standards rule that incorporates nutrition requirements while supporting retailers to ensure their continued participation in SNAP.

Eva Greenthal is a senior policy scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit organization advocating for evidence-based and community-informed policies on nutrition, food safety, and health. Eva provides strategic oversight for the planning, design, and implementation of advocacy and research activities at CSPI, with a focus on food labeling and FDA nutrition policies.

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