WASHINGTON -- U.S. Department of Agriculture has published in the Federal Register a proposed rule designed to provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants increased access to healthy foods by requiring stores that accept SNAP to stock a wider array of food choices.
The 2014 Farm Bill required USDA to develop regulations to ensure that stores that accept SNAP offer a broader variety of healthy food choices. The stocking provisions in the proposed rule would require SNAP-authorized retail establishments to offer a larger inventory and variety of healthy food options.
SNAP retailers would be required to offer seven varieties of qualifying foods in four staple food groups for sale on a continuous basis, along with perishable foods in at least three of the four staple food groups. The staple foods groups are dairy products; breads and cereals; meats, poultry and fish; and fruits and vegetables. In addition, the proposal calls for retailers to stock at least six units within each variety, leading to a total of at least 168 required food items per store.
The proposed rule also underscores USDA’s authority under the Food & Nutrition Act to publicly disclose information about SNAP retailers disqualified or sanctioned for program violations. Information to be disclosed under provisions of the proposed rule would be limited to the name and address of the store, the owners’ and officers’ names and the nature of the violation for which the retailer was sanctioned.
More than 260,000 retailers nationwide are currently authorized to redeem SNAP benefits.
The USDA will receive comments on the proposed rule for 60 days.
The National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) said that “as currently drafted, the proposal will make it increasingly difficult for convenience-store owners and operators to participate in SNAP, which in turn will negatively impact the many SNAP recipients that use their benefits at NACS members’ stores.”
It continued, “Problematically, the proposal would make it so ‘multiple ingredient’ items, such as macaroni and cheese or cold pizza, would not be counted in any staple food category and would not go toward a retailer’s ‘depth of stock’ requirements. This is a dramatic change from current rules, which permit multiple ingredient items to be counted in one staple food category depending on the main ingredient. For instance, since the main ingredient in mac and cheese is pasta, now it could count as one item in the bread and cereals category.”
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