Food and Nutrition Service

November 2016

FOODS TYPICALLY PURCHASED BY SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION
ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP) HOUSEHOLDS (SUMMARY)
Background and Objectives

Data Caveats and Limitations

Analyses using national survey data have shown that
food purchases, consumption patterns, and dietary
outcomes among SNAP participants and higher
income households are more similar than different.

While the POS data provide a wealth of information,
they have the following limitations:

This study analyzes food purchase data collected at
the point of sale (POS) to assess if such data offer a
different or more detailed perspective on food
choices of SNAP and non-SNAP households. It
addresses the following questions: (1) What food
items are purchased by SNAP households? and (2)
How do foods purchased by SNAP households
compare to food purchases made by non-SNAP
households?
Methods
This study analyzed aggregated POS transaction data
from calendar year 2011 from a leading grocery
retailer. The data were drawn from supermarkets,
grocery stores, and combination food and drug
stores; warehouse club stores, specialized food
stores, and convenience stores were not included.
On average, each month’s data contained over 1
billion records of food items bought by 26.5 million
households in 127 million unique transactions. In
2011, shoppers spent $39 billion on food in these
stores, or about $3.3 billion per month.
SNAP households were identified in each monthly
file if they had any transaction in which SNAP was
used to pay for at least half of the total purchase. All
transactions made by that type of household were
linked to estimate total monthly spending. All other
transactions were designated as non-SNAP
household purchases.
Data were aggregated into three hierarchical
categories from 1,792 subcommodities (e.g., bags of
Fuji apples) to 238 commodities (e.g., apples) to 30
summary categories (e.g., fruits), designed to reflect
sections or departments in a typical grocery store.
Expenditures were also analyzed by USDA Food
Pattern categories.

•

Since the data are derived from a single retailer
group, they do not capture purchases made in all
SNAP-authorized stores in any geographic area.

•

In transactions made with both SNAP and cash
or credit cards, these data could not differentiate
between items purchased with SNAP benefits
and those purchased with other funds. The data,
therefore, represent food purchases made by
SNAP households rather than the foods
purchased specifically with SNAP.
(Most
SNAP households use a combination of benefits
and their own funds.)

•

The rankings of expenditure categories depend
in part on how a wide variety of food products
and package sizes are aggregated into summary
categories, commodities and subcommodities.
Each of these steps requires choices, some of
which were made by the provider of this
proprietary data.
Key Findings

Differences in the expenditure patterns of SNAP
and non-SNAP households were relatively
limited, regardless of how data were categorized.
•

About 40 cents of every food purchase dollar
was spent on basic items like meat, fruits,
vegetables, milk, eggs, and bread.

•

Another 20 cents was spent on sweetened
drinks, desserts, salty snacks, candy, and sugar.

•

The remaining 40 cents was spent on a variety of
items such as cereal, prepared foods, other dairy
products, rice, beans, and other cooking
ingredients.

•

The top 10 summary categories (Table 1) and
top 7 commodities by expenditure were the same
for SNAP and non-SNAP households, although
ranked in slightly different orders.

 Page 2
Summary category data show that both SNAP
and non-SNAP households focused their spending
in a relatively small number of similar food item
categories, reflecting similar food choices. The
top five summary categories totaled about half of the
expenditures for SNAP households and non-SNAP
households (50 versus 47 percent).
Commodity-level data (in the full report) show
that both SNAP and non-SNAP households made
choices that may not be fully consistent with the
Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
•

Across all households, more money was spent
on soft drinks than any other item. SNAP

households spent somewhat more on soft drinks
than non-SNAP households (5 versus 4 percent).
•

Both household groups were equally likely to
purchase salty (bag) snacks (about 3 percent of
food purchases), cookies (about 1 percent), and
ice cream, ice milk, and sherbet (about 1
percent).
For More Information

Garasky, Steven, Kassim Mbwana, Andres
Romualdo, Alex Tenaglio and Manan Roy. Foods
Typically Purchased by SNAP Households.
Prepared by IMPAQ International for USDA, Food
and Nutrition Service, November 2016. Available at
www.fns.usda.gov/research-and-analysis.

Table 1: Expenditures on Summary Categories by SNAP and Non-SNAP Households in Dataset in 2011
SNAP Household Expenditures

Summary Category
Meat, Poultry and Seafood
Sweetened Beverages
Vegetables
Frozen Prepared Foods
Prepared Desserts
High Fat Dairy/Cheese
Bread and Crackers
Fruits
Milk
Salty Snacks
Prepared Foods
Cereal
Condiments and Seasoning
Fats and Oils
Candy
Baby Food
Juices
Coffee and Tea
Bottled Water
Eggs
Other Dairy Products
Pasta, Cornmeal, Other Cereal Products
Soups
Sugars
Nuts and Seeds
Beans
Rice
Jams, Jellies, Preserves and Other Sweets
Flour and Prepared Flour Mixes
Miscellaneous
Total Summary Category Expenditures

Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

$ (millions)
$1,262.90
$608.70
$473.40
$455.20
$453.80
$427.80
$354.90
$308.20
$232.70
$225.60
$202.20
$186.90
$174.60
$155.10
$138.20
$126.80
$110.40
$83.40
$78.10
$73.80
$69.80
$66.40
$62.70
$60.90
$53.20
$38.30
$30.10
$29.10
$18.70
$18.60
$6,580.10

% of total
19.2%
9.3%
7.2%
6.9%
6.9%
6.5%
5.4%
4.7%
3.5%
3.4%
3.1%
2.8%
2.7%
2.4%
2.1%
1.9%
1.7%
1.3%
1.2%
1.1%
1.1%
1.0%
1.0%
0.9%
0.8%
0.6%
0.5%
0.4%
0.3%
0.3%
100%

Non-SNAP Household
Expenditures
Rank
$ (millions) % of total
1
$5,016.30
15.9%
5
$2,238.80
7.1%
2
$2,873.90
9.1%
8
$1,592.30
5.1%
6
$2,021.20
6.4%
3
$2,483.20
7.9%
7
$1,978.20
6.3%
4
$2,271.20
7.2%
9
$1,211.00
3.8%
10
$969.70
3.1%
14
$707.00
2.2%
11
$933.90
3.0%
12
$878.90
2.8%
13
$766.90
2.4%
15
$701.40
2.2%
27
$198.20
0.6%
16
$605.40
1.9%
17
$568.80
1.8%
22
$377.40
1.2%
21
$388.20
1.2%
18
$549.50
1.7%
23
$281.50
0.9%
20
$414.10
1.3%
24
$260.30
0.8%
19
$445.90
1.4%
25
$234.50
0.7%
28
$131.00
0.4%
29
$117.50
0.4%
30
$94.90
0.3%
26
$202.60
0.6%
$31,512.50
100%

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