“They separate out the food that qualifies from the items that don’t.”
They haven’t had to do that for many years. You might be thinking of WIC.
but you do have to use more than one card to pay for your items if you have non chargeable items for welfare/food stamps.
It’s pretty obvious, I’ve been in line several times behind people that get welfare / food stamp debit cards.
If you pay the slightest bit of attention, it is easy to spot.
What grates me is people buying up hundreds of dollars of T-Bones, Ribeyes, Strip Loins, etc on food stamps while I have to bargain shop.