Soft drinks, candy, cookies, snack crackers, and ice cream are food items and are therefore eligible items Seafood, steak, and bakery cakes are also food items and are therefore eligible items
Since the current definition of food is a specific part of the Act, any change to this definition would require action by a member of Congress. Several times in the history of SNAP, Congress had considered placing limits on the types of food that could be purchased with program benefits. However, they concluded that designating foods as luxury or non-nutritious would be administratively costly and burdensome.
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Imma call "Bullsh!t!!!" on that part.
And you would be correct. Because everything is now automated it takes very little to make such changes. A rotisserie chicken from the deli department is not permitted because it is considered a "prepared" meal, but a Banquet frozen fried chicken dinner is eligible.........it would be very simple to switch the classification on both items with a few key strokes.
The reason this would be a major pain and unworkable is that you would have major lobbying from manufacturers and even lawsuits defending their products. Yes, some really egregious items in the snack section might get cut off but many others would be defended based on vitamin additives, ability to re-hydrate, etc. And some "luxury" foods are normal foods say if you're a crabber or lobster trapper. These things sound ridiculous but would tie up the reform process for years.