Policy Brief

Twenty-three states are restricting which foods can be bought under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but researchers may not have the data needed to tell whether the change actually works.

This brief describes the methodological and data challenges in evaluating SNAP food restriction waivers.

The authors identify that existing data sources miss much of what participants buy and eat, especially food purchased away from home or received for free, and that the data typically used to fill federal gaps cover too few low-income households to solve the problem.