The new rule requires SNAP-authorized retailers to offer a wider variety of staple foods, including more perishable and nutritious items such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, and proteins, while also tightening standards to address fraud and loopholes used to abuse the benefits programs.
“To turn the tide on our nation’s health crisis, we need to ensure our nutrition assistance programs emphasize real food first, and that’s exactly what these updates to SNAP retailer requirements will do,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.
Rollins said that SNAP-authorized retailers accept more than $90 billion a year, or $236 million a day, in taxpayer dollars.
“USDA is making sure they’re actually in the business of selling food,” she said. “And for those retailers who are the only food outpost for miles, I know you will be so excited to serve your customers and communities healthy food.”
She said that while previous efforts to cut fraud focused on those claiming SNAP benefits, there is also “a lot of retail fraud in SNAP as well.”
USDA’s new rule more than doubles the old requirements and increases the number of required staple food varieties retailers must carry from three to seven in each of four categories: fruits and vegetables, dairy, grains, and protein foods.
The updated standards also increase requirements for perishable foods and narrow the range of products that can count toward compliance.
Under previous standards, some processed products could qualify for minimum stocking requirements. Rollins said stores previously could count jelly as a fruit and jerky as a protein.
USDA said the changes are also intended to improve access to healthier food options for SNAP recipients, particularly in areas where convenience stores and small retailers are the primary sources of groceries.
In announcing the new rule, USDA said the Food and Nutrition Service has taken action involving nearly 3,200 retailers over the past 14 months for allegedly failing to comply with existing stocking standards either during application or after authorization. Retailers found in violation can be disqualified from accepting SNAP benefits.
The agency said the new standards are designed to eliminate loopholes that allowed certain snack and highly processed foods to count toward staple food inventory requirements.
The USDA says the rule will demand more accountability from retailers who have stocked only the bare minimum and have also been responsible for the most program violations, including benefit trafficking and fraudulent behavior.
“For those who do get food from a corner store, we are going to make sure there is real, nutritious food,” Rollins said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also praised the changes. “This rule puts real food back at the center of SNAP,” he said, adding that it “demands more from retailers and delivers better options for the families who depend on this program.”
The new rules start in Fall 2026. The USDA said it will give more information to retailers in the coming weeks.