SNAP’s Ultra-Processed Food Problem: Our Investigation Results

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has come under increasing scrutiny for how its benefits are spent. Critics point out that the program may be "encouraging families to eat highly processed, unhealthy junk food" rather than nourishing them with wholesome options. This concern prompted us to conduct a detailed investigation into the foods eligible for purchase with Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards (which deliver SNAP benefits) at one of the nation’s largest grocery retailers.

📌 This blog post presents preliminary findings from an ongoing study.

To assess the composition of foods accessible through SNAP, we analyzed over 13,000 EBT-eligible products listed at Walmart, one of the nation’s largest grocery retailers. Walmart was selected as a case study due to its large market presence. The findings reflect broader trends in the U.S. food retail system, not specific practices of any single retailer.

Our findings confirm an alarming trend: SNAP is overwhelmingly supporting the ultra-processed food industry instead of promoting healthier choices. SNAP appears to be reinforcing this imbalance by funneling billions of dollars toward these products. Ultra-processed foods have been linked to 32 health issues, including diabetes. A 10% increase in ultra-processed food consumption is associated with a 17% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Below, we break down the key results of our analysis.

Key Findings

The vast majority of items that SNAP recipients can buy are highly processed. Notable findings include:

• 62% are ultra-processed foods (UPFs).
• Nearly half (47%) of the products contain artificial flavorings. These synthetic flavors are a hallmark of processed foods, designed to enhance taste artificially. The prevalence of "artificial flavor" on ingredient lists suggests that a huge portion of SNAP dollars can only buy foods engineered for taste—often to mask poor nutritional quality.
• 8% of products contain additives that are banned in California or in California schools. Perhaps most shocking, hundreds of EBT-eligible foods include chemical additives that regulators have deemed unsafe enough to prohibit. For example, ingredients like potassium bromate, propylparaben, and Red Dye No. 3 appear in many SNAP foods, even though California’s new Food Safety Act bans these substances from all foods sold in the state.
  Likewise, common artificial dyes such as Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1, Blue No. 2, and Green No. 3—all of which California has barred from public school cafeterias—are found in numerous items that SNAP funds can purchase. In short, a non-trivial share of SNAP-eligible foods contain additives that some US government agencies won’t even allow in certain settings for safety reasons.

• Over 160 products contain Red Dye No. 3, which has been recently banned by the FDA.
• 48% of products are excessively high in sugar, fat, salt, or calories.
  Using Chile’s pioneering nutritional classification system—which flags products "High in" sugar, sodium, saturated fat, or calories if they exceed strict per-serving thresholds—we determined that nearly half of the SNAP-eligible foods would receive at least one warning label. Specifically:
  • 28% of all products were high in calories
  • 28% were high in sodium
  • 21% were high in sugar
  • 14% were high in (saturated) fat, per Chile’s criteria.
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    SNAP dollars are heavily spent on products that would come with black stop-sign labels in countries like Chile due to their poor nutritional profiles!

Each of these data points paints a consistent picture: the SNAP program in its current form is largely a pipeline for ultra-processed, high-sugar/salt/fat foods. This means that American taxpayer money is predominantly subsidizing products that are known to contribute to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other diet-related illnesses, rather than foods that combat these issues.

Top Categories Dominated by UPFs

Drilling down by food category, our analysis found that certain aisles of the grocery store are almost entirely filled with ultra-processed choices for SNAP users. It’s in these categories that the imbalance is most pronounced:

• Candy: 97% of SNAP-eligible candy products are ultra-processed. Not a huge surprise!
• Bakery & Bread: 93% of products in this category are UPFs.
• Frozen Foods: 82% are UPFs. (Frozen pizzas, TV dinners, ice creams—convenient, but often heavily processed and high in sodium, sugars, and fats.)
• Breakfast & Cereal: 80% are UPFs. From sugary cereals to processed toaster pastries and flavored instant oatmeal, the majority of breakfast options funded by SNAP skew ultra-processed and loaded with added sugar.
• Beverages: 77% are UPFs. This includes not just sodas but many juices, flavored drinks, and sweetened teas or coffees. Sugary drinks are a major contributor to poor diet quality, and alarmingly, they alone account for about 10% of SNAP spending by some estimates.
  Our findings show most beverage choices for SNAP shoppers—aside from plain water or unflavored milk—are ultra-processed.
• Dairy & Eggs: 69% are UPFs. While eggs and plain milk are unprocessed, many SNAP-eligible dairy products (think flavored yogurts, processed cheeses, coffee creamers) are filled with sweeteners, artificial flavors, and stabilizers, pushing them into the ultra-processed realm.
• Meat & Seafood: 66% are UPFs. Despite SNAP recipients having access to fresh meat, a large portion of the meat inventory on SNAP tends to be processed meats (e.g., hot dogs, sausages).
• Snacks, Cookies & Chips: 65% are UPFs. Whole food snack options (like nuts) are the minority.

Across these categories, the story is the same: the default options available to SNAP consumers are overwhelmingly ultra-processed. For instance, an EBT shopper walking down the aisles for beverages, snacks, or breakfast cereals will find that virtually every item their benefits can buy is a highly processed product. It’s important to note that these are precisely the categories that also drive much of SNAP spending. National data shows that soft drinks are the top expenditure for SNAP households.

In short, when SNAP recipients use their benefits, they’re largely buying products from these UPF-heavy categories—not because SNAP participants love junk food, but because that’s what the program makes most accessible and affordable. The deck is stacked in favor of processed foods.

It’s Time for Reform.

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This blog post is based on preliminary findings from an ongoing study analyzing over 13,000 SNAP-EBT eligible products. These insights are subject to further validation and refinement before formal publication. Walmart was selected as a case study due to its extensive grocery inventory and accessibility to SNAP recipients. However, this selection does not imply that Walmart's practices are unique. Previous research has shown that similar patterns in the proportion of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are observed across other large grocery retailers. These findings are part of broader research on the food retail system and may be refined with further study. Product classifications were determined based on ingredient lists and established UPF criteria, which may evolve with future research and policy updates.