Sarah Katz, 21, had a heart condition and died hours after she drank Panera’s Charged Lemonade, a large cup of which contains more caffeine than Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined.
All Panera Bread restaurants are now displaying “enhanced” disclosures about the restaurant chain’s highly caffeinated lemonade, a spokesperson said Saturday, following a lawsuit that was filed by the family of a young woman who died after drinking the beverage.
Monday’s lawsuit, which was first obtained by NBC News, alleges that Sarah Katz, an Ivy League student with a heart condition, died after she drank Panera’s Charged Lemonade last year.
A large Charged Lemonade contains 390 milligrams — nearly the 400-milligram daily maximum of caffeine that the Food and Drug Administration says healthy adults can safely consume.
Why on earth would they have that much caffeine for a lemonade at Panera?
This is from their website
The NEW Panera Charged Lemonades are the ultimate energy drink guaranteed to charge up your day. Powered by Clean caffeine from guarana and green coffee extract, these caffeinated lemonades feature refreshing mango, cranberry, or strawberry mint flavors. These drinks are cold, caffeinated, and so ready for summer. Plant-based and Clean with as much caffeine as our Dark Roast coffee.
So sounds like they are advertising it as a coffee or energy drink alternative
That’s fine and all but why so much? This stuff has 390mg caffeine, Red Bulls have 80mg. Such a weird thing for Panera of all places to do.
Looks like it has the same amount of caffeine as coffee. Guessing the large is 32 oz. That’s about on par with drinking 32oz of black coffee
Per fluid ounce it’s actually not high. A 16 oz can of GFuel has 300mg.
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You guys got 0.6L coffees, wow.
The cold ventis are 24oz
I used to drink five 24 oz. coffees a day, then one day I did the math and realized I was literally drinking a fucking gallon of coffee. Now I’m down to one cup (8 oz.) per day. I feel great and it’s nice to actually blink once in a while.
Coffee drinkers drink several times more caffeine on average than energy drink drinkers. A large coffee from Panera has over 400mg caffeine.
Now. What about before?
Merica!
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wait wait a lady fucking died and they’re getting away with simply enhanced signs??
Well the FDA says the caffeine content is safe for an adult.
For an average healthy adult. That’s what the disclaimers are for, so that those who can’t tolerate it will know about it.
And yes, insufficient warnings should have pretty harsh penalties precisely for this reason
True. As for penalties, some pragmatism is needed lest you create another “everything causes cancer in California” joke.
A warning that’s applied to everything will be ignored by everyone.
Other people posted pictures of the dispensers. It said right on the sign how much caffeine is in it.
The FDA also says brominated vegetable oil is safe for human consumption
So, the FDA isn’t perfect, but they’re reversing their stance based on evidence.
https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/brominated-vegetable-oil-bvo
BVO is added to a food for a specific purpose and is regulated by the FDA as a direct food additive. BVO is allowed for use in a small amount, not to exceed 15 parts per million, in the U.S. as a stabilizer for fruit flavoring used in beverages.
The FDA is working on a proposed rule to amend our regulations to remove the authorization of the use of BVO as a food ingredient. For more information, see the unified agenda.
Thank Gebus for California.
Looks to me like it is safe in smaller doses?
🤷♂️
Well this is like, how you do not eat things you are allergic too.
This is a product made by Panera Bread? Lol I would not expect the store brand lemonade to be jacked on caffeine.
Probably some executive’s nephew or something invented it. Absolutely a stupid idea.
Nah caffeine is flavorless and addictive. You mix it in with water and a patented combination of flavors and corn syrup, and the customers just keep coming back for it.
Selling an exclusive and addictive product is a good way to gain repeat customers.
Hell serious caffeine addicts will see this headline and plan to head to Panera at some point this week to check it out. No different than when heroin gets cut with fentanyl. Maybe somebody dies, but more junkies just want to chase that high.
I’ve always wondered why caffeine pills don’t do better if that’s the goal. I think it’s more about the drink, not caffeine.
It’s not entirely flavorless, it has a slightly bitter taste, but generally if you’re at the point where you are noticing the taste you are either in severe trouble or you’ve done something like put a 100mg caffeine pill in plain water.
I take caffeine pills to regulate my dose (400mg / day, no more or less) and can’t take pills without chewing em. Pure caffeine tastes like giga-bitter dogshit. Nom nom.
I respect your grit, lol. I have 200mg caffeine pills but they don’t play too nicely with my stomach, so I keep them as a backup. I usually mix soda water with Costco brand energy shots for a comparable amount of caffeine which doesn’t cause issues for me for whatever reason.
It’s not flavorless, it’s bitter. You just can’t taste it over the pound of sugar.
They call it charged lemonade and they advertised it as being all natural and healthy too. Despite having more caffeine than their coffee or monster/red bull
It’s the same as their coffee. Same as the dark roast, anyway, and less caffeine per ounce than the light roast.
I feel like every beverage containing caffeine should have its total content labeled.
Not because I’m sensitive or anything, I just need the biggest dose I can find in the morning.
Then again, I’ve been addicted to caffeine since child hood. I quit once, it was thought to be disturbing my sleep; NOPE! Just bipolar mania fucking it up.
If anyone is concerned, I’m on meds and doing well - I still might stab someone in the morning over getting in the way of caffeine though.
Their labeling clearly stated the amount of caffeine per 20 and 30 oz cups. Image: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/10/24/paneras-caffeinated-charged-lemonade-blamed-for-college-students-death-in-lawsuit/amp/
I had no opinion until I read this thread.
I’m a person that suffers from addiction to food, for lack of better phrasing. As in, I am currently going to therapy and a nutricionist and have won this battle a few times before.
I usually think sugar laws are BS, but taxes are a way of making things more “balanced without bans”.
850 ml of somethig should not have 14% of its weight come from sugar. That’s insane. No serving of something should contain 124 grams of sugar, except … sugar. You’re basically eating a quarter pounder made of sugar when you’re drinking this. Like, eating an eighth of a 1kg bag of sugar is basically the same thing as drinking this. Holy fuck.
I like coffee, caffeinated drinks, etc etc. I like science and technology and bizarre nutrition (protein powders, BCAAs, etc). I didn’t know what the “safe adult limit” of caffeine was, except that you’d have to drink several cups of coffee extremely quickly. There have been days , especially at uni where I’d drink 3 large energy drinks, and feel my heart react to it and think “yeah, that’s enough”.
The “warning” on the drink is completely contextless and ignoreable. “Oh ok, it’s got caffeine in it, 389mg, wild”. No wonder the woman just grabbed it and went on with her day and died.
Also, it’s a complete waste of advertising potential. If a drink advertises “ALMOST LETHAL AMOUNTS OF CAFFEINE!” you might want to drink it more for that reason, “Charged lemonade” makes it sounds like it’s got a hint of lime in it as well as lemons.
I really don’t get this lawsuit it is clearly labeled on the app, and the dispensers.
It may be something to do without a proper reference. If it showed a large =3 cups of coffee you get a good idea, but stating a certain mg of caffeine doesn’t really mean much to most people.
I think this would make far more sense. Plus, I know that for me, the last thing I would think about lemonade is that it has caffeine content. Alchohol, maybe. Sugar? Sure. But caffeine? Nope. Having never heard of their Charged Lemonade before this, I think I’d probably be likely to make that mistake at least once.
To be fair, Panera has always labeled the caffeine content of its drinks. Problem is that people don’t read the god damn label on the machine, forcing Panera to make it bigger and more obvious.
The staff nationwide were instructed to tell customers that it has “About as much caffeine as our dark roast” when asked about the caffeine content though.
…which is accurate.
Sounds like you were given too much stimulation as a child and now anything less makes you uncomfortable.
My kids went and filled their cups with this stuff before I noticed what it was and then had to be the bad guy, telling them to get the Minute Maid shite. Definitely lowered my opinion of Panera.
Is the stuff just in the soda fountain?
Separate dispensers like they said, but if you’re paying the meal and you tell the kids to go get their drinks and they want lemonade you have to watch out they don’t get the heart attack shit. Once you know you know, but I couldn’t believe that’s a thing that exists.
No. Seperate dispensers completely.
And clearly marked as Charged Lemonade with the calorie and caffeine content for both the 20oz and 30oz cups on the dispenser since they were introduced.
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Which they moved behind the counter d/t people complaining about the caffeine content.
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I’m shocked it took this long. The caffeine content in that shit is MIND BLOWING. When you buy a energy drink you know what you are signing up for. But a lemonade with 260 to 390mg of caffeine??? That’s pushing the limit of a
healthysafe daily dose for an average adultWhy the fuck would lemonade of all things have caffeine anyway?
Because it’s called ‘Charged Lemonade’.
Charged, like the thing that you do to your phone to put energy into it.
Mike’s hard lemonade exists… Has alcohol in it.
Because someone made it and people buy it?
Why shouldn’t lemonade have caffeine? Because you think it shouldn’t? Lol.
That’s about the same as a large coffee, but nobody blinks an eye at that. https://www.cspinet.org/caffeine-chart
Because then people know what they’re getting. That’s why. She wouldn’t have bought a large coffee like that
Nah even that source shows most coffees are 100ish mg
It absolutely does not. 100mg per what? They list different quantities of each drink on that source. If you look at it from a mg/fl-oz perspective, you’ll see that the lemonades are on par with coffee.
Holy shit yeah actually. That’s a huge fucking coffee is it not? I mean 20 oz is huge.
https://cacmap.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/spilling-beans-how-much-caffeine-too-much
8 oz to 10 oz is what I would expect a cup of coffee to be. FDA estimates 100ish for an 8 oz. I had no idea Starbucks served giant ass coffees like that lmfao
20oz is pretty standard from what I’ve seen for large hot coffees. I believe that the dunkin large iced coffees are like 30oz(while hot is 20). Relatively standard sizes in the US tbh.
Ain’t Nothin healthy about that lol
Lol. Fixed now.
It’s more than a litre of red bull in one drink.
Wild lemonade leaves woman very excited lol 😆
What is going to come from this is Panera settles, and then sticks the charged lemonade behind the counter and enhances warning labels.
What may indirectly come from this is Solid Numbers on Caffeine overdose. and what is a safe amount and what is playing with fire.
It’s a modern day created problem. energy drinks flood the market, other companies compete and boom, someone died. I’ve seen reports that she had some medical issues and caffeine was like her version of a bee sting or peanut allergy , but I’ve yet to corroborate that narrative.
Yes, prior reporting covered that she had a heart condition and she was extremely aware that too much caffeine would kill her. The lemonade was clearly labeled with its caffeine content. It didn’t say it was extreme, but it was clearly labeled with how much is in it. The story that “she didn’t know” doesn’t add up unless she was just being wildly negligent.
Article with image of the labeling: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/10/24/paneras-caffeinated-charged-lemonade-blamed-for-college-students-death-in-lawsuit/amp/
As someone with a food allergy, I check everything I eat for my allergens. If I’m not sure what’s in it, I don’t eat it. And all that will happen to me is I’ll feel ill for a while. Anyone with a lethal condition damn well knows better.
I’m sure a lot of people don’t know off the top of there head what is and is not a lot of caffeine.
People with caffeine sensitivity probably do.
their*
You failing basic grammar should tell you that your opinion on this (and other things) is worth nothing.
Lol, obvious troll.
Blocked.
Funny. We’ve actually been doing the same thing with salt and sugar for decades.
But overconsuming those doesn’t usually result in an immediate death. Just diabetes and stroke.
Is this lawsuit gonna drive the price of sandwiches from $15 to $30? /s
They’ll just make their bread even more stale and give you even smaller sandwiches for the exorbitant price.
Now the sales for that drink is going to go up, due to human curiosity.
I definitely want some caffeinated lemonade
There’s caffeinated lemonade and then there’s ‘10 mg away from the maximum daily recommendation of caffeine’ lemonade.
You can order a smaller size if you’re worried. The lemonade isn’t particularly highly caffeinated, it’s the cup size that is excessive. The lemonade is 13mg/oz, an average coffee is 12mg/oz which means a lot of coffees are higher, such as Starbucks coffee at 20mg/oz. Espresso is 50 and “energy shots” ten times that.
I definitely think labeling should be more explicit on presence of caffeine across the board (not just tiny text on a container). A limitation of size to 16oz (half the current size, same as a grande at SB) would also avoid the “supersize” effect here. But the lemonade itself isn’t really the issue imo.
Supposedly you would need to knock back anywhere from 10-25 of those back to back (4-10g dose) for it to kill you… But people have died intaking significantly less caffeine.
Considering the average person won’t know which end of that spectra they’re on until they get there, it’s not a risk I’d want to take.
Apparently the woman who died had a caffeine sensitivity. She shouldn’t have been having any caffeine.
I suppose the question would be then was she ever aware it had caffeine in it at all?
I’ve never been to a Panera, so I don’t know how they advertised that lemonade.https://www.fixturescloseup.com/2023/07/23/energy-charged-lemonade-dispenser/
That page, from a few months ago, has pictures. The signs clearly list the caffeine content.
Sucks that she died, but it’s pretty clearly labeled, and if you have a sensitivity, you need to be checking these things if you aren’t familiar with them.
Having the drink available in the soda fountain next to normal drinks is overall a bad idea both for kids and unknowingly customers (also ~400 calories for a lemonade is madness). The adjective “charged” doesn’t make me think “with caffeine”, it should be called caffeinated/energy lemonade in big font like redbull does, not with some abstract marketing adjective.
4g is 10x the safe daily limit, you are putting yourself in danger well before that.
Yes - which is why I specifically said “for it to kill you”
You would experience a range of other symptoms, some quite severe, way before reaching your lethal dose - but those wouldn’t kill you, at least not outright.
Problem is there is quite the high deviation in calculating what that lethal dose is for the average person, and given that people have died intaking significantly less (as I said), testing how many of those you could knock back is not something I’d do personally or recommend anyone else try.
So get a medium instead of a large?
not now but tommorrow morning yeah
Problem is that stuff seems to be more lemonated caffeine than caffeinated lemonade.
Fuck me…
I was just thinking I wanted to try some Charged Lemonade.
400 mg a day?
Apparently I should be dead.
Most 8 ounce cups of coffee contain 80 to 100 milligrams of caffeine. A large coffee from Tim Hortons is 20 ounces which has roughly 250mg of caffeine. And I used to drink 2, sometimes 3 or 4, of those a day.
I’ll likely be dead by next Tuesday. I sure could go for a coffee right now though.
Edit: For those that want to plan accordingly, a 20 ounce blonde roast from Starbucks has 475mg of caffeine. The dark roast had about 340mg.
Well, the body changes over time. I used to drink a ton of coffee back in my 20-30s. Something happened in my 40s. I became very sensitive to caffeine and I couldn’t handle anything more than a cup. Now I can’t drink it on the regular as it will keep me awake at night. I miss it very much, so every now and then I’ll have a cup, but only if I know I have the next day off.
Decaf?
I switched over to Earl Grey. Love that stuff now.
The spouse still drinks the double dark French roast I love, so I just make her share on those days I want it. It’s a local roaster with no decaf in that flavor.
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Sure, not much though. A pittance compared to the strong coffee I liked.
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Have you tried, I don’t know…sleeping?
I only stop sleeping when I sustain 3-4 large Timmy’s a day for many weeks. On an average Sunday morning when I don’t have anything to do, I can drink 2 cups of homebrew and fall asleep on the couch watching TV.
Consequently, among other observations, I’ve also considered getting tested for ADHD.
Same boat. I easily drink a pot a day. Been thinking I should try and cut back, but maybe this is the push I need.
Who’d have thought a place that can’t even make a bagel with cream cheese properly would be the one to turbo-charge the lemonade.
Seriously, once I decided to get one and they gave me an uncut bagel and little shitty single-serve cream cheese. Even I asked wtf and said I wanted it done they looked at me as if I were from friggin outer space.
Pretty sure it’s normal to put your own cream cheese on… But it would have been nice if they’d at least cut the bagel, I guess.
That’s ridiculous, if you get breakfast sandwiches do they just give you an egg, mayo, and bread? Aren’t they in the service industry?
If you want something done a certain way and are not sure if they provide that kind of thing, you’re supposed to ask. Some people have their bagels sliced instead of cut, some not at all. Like, just ask.
I don’t think the two are related, at all.
(not so) fun fact: they put it where they normally place non caffeinated drinks
I wonder how the doctors knew that she had this lemonade and pinned it as the sole cause of her death vs anything else that could have caused it or as a combination of things since she had a condition already - the legal discussion of this in the lawsuit could be very relevant for panera
She knew she had the condition and avoided high caffeine drinks.
She did not know about the caffeine content, 390mg in the large lemonade, due to poor labeling by Panera. This one drink is 10mg less than the maximum daily dose for HEALTHY person according to the FDA.
Given the lack of consuming any other caffeine products regularly due to her knowing about their impact on her heart, it is not a leap to say the lemonade was the culprit.
Further, the lawsuit alleges harm, even if not the sole cause of death, from their product due to not making it clear to the buyer that contents has so much caffeine.
According to coffeechemistry.com, one liquid ounce of espresso can have anywhere between 30 and 50mg of caffeine. That means that a double shot will likely have anywhere between 60 and 100mg.
She bought a lemonade, without caffeine labeling, that contained 8 shots of espresso in caffeine. Cause of death or not, the legal culpability and reasonable expectation that this would not be in its contents is clear as day.
This will never go to trial.
I know nothing about this lawsuit but if she ordered this from a delivery app then there would be zero indication during purchasing that it is caffeinated
I saw a picture of the lemonade dispenser herw and the caffeine content was shown quite clearly
The caffeine content was on the label but rather small for such an extreme amount. Additionally, it was not put in relation to anything for 2 of the 3 lemonades, they only wrote the coffeine content in milligram, very few people can relate to this information without looking it other drinks.
For one of them, it claimed to be in similar strength as their coffee, which was a lie according to the lawsuit, as their coffee has “normal” coffeine content.
It’s not a lie. 30oz of the lemonade has as much caffeine as 30oz of their dark roast coffee. That’s a lot of coffee.
I have rechecked the image and the coffee comparison was for 2 out of 3.
You are right, that the concentration of the caffeine was as high as it is in a normal cup of coffee. But the caffeine content was given as an absolute value not as a concentration, so it was misleading. But you are right, it was not a lie.
Their text can be easily interpreted as an comparisons of the large or small lemonade with a large or small cup of coffee. Which is not an unreasonable thought, as 30 oz of Cola has roughly the same amount of coffeine (83 mg) as 1 cup of coffee (96 mg, according to Mayo Clinic).
“As much as our dark roast coffee” isn’t an absolute value, but I think there really should be a sticker saying “Warning: high caffeine content / approx (x mg small) (y mg med) (390mg large)”. This sticker should appear clearly next to the menu items as well as on the cups. Self-serve stations should probably be removed since kids are vastly more likely to drink a ton of lemonade compared to hot, black coffee.
I drank a few of these not sure if it was “as much as a regular coffee” or “as much as an equivalent size.” I didn’t think twice because I take a lot of caffeine anyway, but I shouldn’t have had to google it.
I can see how depending on the circumstances of obtaining the drink, one might not know there is caffeine in it at all:
-
ordering from a third party online app that doesn’t have all the right names, descriptions, and pictures
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ordering through a third party proxy or having the item described to you by a third party (“anyone want anything? They have lemonade…”)
There really should be a clear notice right on the thing you’re about to drink from, of exactly how much caffeine is in it. No marketing crap (“it’s charged!”) or vague comparisons (“as much as our coffee”) suffices.
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200mg of caffeine makes me feel ill. 390mg in a lemonade is insane. wtf
I fuckin bet they are.
