Relating to prohibiting the purchase of sweetened drinks and candy under the supplemental nutrition assistance program.

Contracts

• POS Vendor Agreements: Review software maintenance contracts immediately. Determine if "regulatory updates" to the Approved Product List (APL) are covered or if re-coding thousands of SKUs based on nutritional content will be billable work.
• Supplier Agreements: Update vendor terms to require digital data attributes for "added sugar" and "artificial sweeteners" on all beverage products. Relying on manual label checks at the store level is operationally impossible.

Hiring/Training

• Cashier De-escalation: Front-line staff will act as the enforcement mechanism. You must develop training modules and scripts for cashiers to handle friction when a customer’s EBT card declines specific items (e.g., soda) while approving others.
• Inventory Management: Merchandising teams must be trained to screen new inventory against the "5 grams of added sugar" threshold before assigning POS eligibility codes.

Reporting & Record-Keeping

• Audit Trails: In the event of a SNAP compliance audit, you must maintain digital logs proving your POS system correctly segregated ineligible items.
• Waiver Documentation: Keep a file of the official HHSC waiver approval notice (if issued) to establish your legal compliance start date.

Fees & Costs

• POS Reprogramming: Expect one-time costs to upgrade POS logic to handle a third eligibility category ("Food – SNAP Ineligible").
• Potential Penalties: Failure to restrict these items at the POS constitutes a violation of your USDA retailer agreement, carrying the risk of disqualification from the SNAP program.