What Items Can Be Purchased With EBT Cards?

If you use an Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, card when shopping, you will find restrictions on what you can buy. The EBT card is issued under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP or food stamps, and is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assist eligible individuals with buying nutritious food.

You can use your EBT card to buy any food item – including meat, poultry, fish vegetables or dairy item – from any store that accepts the cards. But you’re not restricted to just supermarkets. Many convenience stores, independent meat markets and farmers markets also accept EBT. Defining what food is can be tricky, however, based on federal standards. Congress sets these standards, and only congressional legislation can alter the definition.

While you can’t get ornamental plants with an EBT card, any other plant that can be grown for food is eligible. This includes anything that produces fruits or vegetables, including seeds.

Although some may argue that junk food is barely food, items such as soft drinks and potato chips can be bought with an EBT card. Special-occasion foods such as birthday cakes are also eligible, as long as the non-food decorations don’t carry a higher value than the cake.

Although Congress considered removing luxury food items from its eligibility list, the legislators decided that would create a bureaucratic nightmare. Because of this, you can buy seafood and pricey steaks – even organic food – with an EBT card. However, live animals such as fresh lobster pulled directly from the tank, animals intended for slaughter and chickens for laying eggs are not eligible.

According to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, you can buy some energy drinks with an EBT card. If the label shows a nutritional value, it is considered food and is eligible. But, if it has a supplements facts label, then it is considered a supplement and therefore not eligible for purchase.

The EBT card can’t be used to buy hot food or anything meant to be eaten on the premises. This leaves out restaurant meals and those hot, ready-to-eat chicken dinners at the supermarket deli. You also can’t buy paper products, diapers, pet food, vitamins and supplements, beer, cigarettes or lottery tickets with your EBT card.

Other government programs such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families dispense cash assistance through an EBT card. Unlike the SNAP food program, this benefit can be used for non-food items or to get cash from an ATM machine.