The Hot Foods Act of 2025 lifts the general ban on purchasing ready-to-eat hot foods with SNAP benefits while imposing a sales cap on retailers that primarily sell such items.
Grace Meng
Representative
NY-6
The Hot Foods Act of 2025 removes the general federal ban on using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to purchase hot, ready-to-eat foods. This legislation clarifies that hot foods are now eligible for purchase with SNAP benefits, while also setting a new rule that limits SNAP-participating retailers to deriving no more than 50% of their gross sales from these ready-to-eat hot items. The act updates existing statutes to reflect this expanded purchasing power for recipients.
SNAP Hot Food Ban Lifted, But New 50% Sales Cap Hits Retailers
The new Hot Foods Act of 2025 is tackling one of the most persistent and, frankly, annoying rules in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): the ban on buying hot, ready-to-eat food. The bill directly strikes the federal prohibition against using SNAP benefits to purchase hot foods or hot food products ready for immediate consumption (Sec. 2). This means you could potentially use your benefits to grab a rotisserie chicken, a hot deli sandwich, or a pizza slice—a massive flexibility win for people who might be elderly, disabled, living without kitchen access, or just working two jobs and needing a quick meal.
The Convenience Upgrade
For years, SNAP recipients have had to navigate a confusing landscape where you could buy a cold sandwich, but not the hot one next to it, or buy ingredients to cook a meal, but not the already-cooked meal itself. This bill cleans up that confusion. It explicitly clarifies that the definition of what SNAP covers now includes hot foods, modernizing the program for a world where people often need quick, prepared food options (Sec. 2(q)(2)). For the single parent rushing home after a late shift, or the construction worker grabbing lunch on a short break, this change is huge for convenience and saving precious time.
The Retailer Catch: The 50% Rule
While the change is great news for recipients, the bill introduces a significant new hurdle for the stores that accept SNAP. The legislation modifies the rules for retailer participation, adding a brand-new constraint: a store can only accept SNAP if no more than 50% of its total gross sales come from hot foods or hot food products ready for immediate consumption (Sec. 2(o)(1)). This is where the policy gets complicated.
This 50% cap is designed to ensure that SNAP remains focused on general food assistance and not just prepared meals. However, it creates a real problem for certain types of retailers. Think about the small, independent deli that sells groceries but makes most of its money from hot breakfast sandwiches and lunch specials, or the small convenience store that relies heavily on selling hot food throughout the day. If their hot food sales tip over that 50% mark, they could be disqualified from accepting SNAP altogether, even if they are located in a neighborhood with few other grocery options. This could limit where recipients can shop, especially in food deserts where smaller stores often fill the gap.
What This Means on the Ground
For the average person using SNAP, the change offers immediate flexibility—you can now buy that hot meal when you need it. But for the small business owner, this means new accounting headaches and potential business model adjustments. A store owner will now need to meticulously track their hot food sales versus all other sales (groceries, cold drinks, household items) to ensure they stay below the limit. If they miscalculate or if their hot food sales spike, they risk losing the ability to serve their SNAP customers. It’s a classic policy trade-off: increased freedom for the consumer, but increased regulatory burden and risk for the participating business.