Sarah Katz, 21, had a heart condition and was not aware of the drink’s caffeine content, which exceeded that of cans of Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined, according to a legal filing
Welp, this post might have just saved my life. I had no idea, and a heart condition.
8 months ago Food Theroy did agreat video on this. It’s very appropriately titled given the unfortunate circumstances.
It was reckless for Panera to make and sell this drink, there was pently of forewarning that the abnormally high caffeine content was dangerous for certain groups. Hope the family wins big, nothing will bring back their loved one but this could’ve been avoided with more clear nutrientional warnings.
f u panera
So are you saying “f u” to all coffee shops? Because I can (and often do) get a standard on-menu beverage with more caffeine than these larges without a single warning on it at Dunkin Donuts.
These lemonades are at least covered in “this has THIS much caffeine in it” advertising.
Good lord. I drank like half a red bull once and felt like I was going to die… Why would anyone even want to consume that much…
I had a drop of redbull once and was raging for months. It’s strong stuff
so personal responsibility is not part of the discussion? if you have a heart condition you should absolutely not be consuming large volumes of highly processed sugar laden drinks - they almost always have high amounts of caffeine.
I keep seeing the “personal responsibility” phrase in this thread and I feel like it’s missing the point. I suppose the thinking is “some people ruin it for everyone”, but frankly where is the corporate responsibilities? As another poster put it, why is a quadruple monster sold at a place famous for their soup? That amount of stimulus is intense for people without health conditions. Would the general public truly be losing out if Panera had this labeled as several energy drinks flavored lemonade?
The larger issue is that caffeine should be regulated to a higher degree than it is, but Panera received tons of backlash a year ago when this was debuted and ignored it. Chains this size have their meals painstakingly tested and formulated, it was reckless to treat this as just another fountain drink.
why is a quadruple monster sold at a place famous for their soup?
Let me ask the counter-question. Why is a half-strength coffee sold at a place known as a major coffee-and-study spot?
Panera as a business has often needed to ride multiple markets to survive, and the giant coffee setups they’ve had for the last 20 years when you walk in every door doesn’t scream “soup”. Have you ever heard of the Unlimited Sip Club? They sell various drinks, but the primary marketing image is a girl holding a giant iced coffee (which has at least as much caffeine as the charged lemonade). And honestly, they’ve always been fairly open about the fact almost every beverage they sell is caffeinated and there are absolutely (unlimited refill) items on the menu with more caffeine than these charged lemonades.
The only argument that IMO gives Panera any responsibility on this is the people who showed pictures of SOME Paneras where the giant" as caffeinated as our coffee" sign is hidden behind the counter. They literally lie upwards in caffeine content in their warnings (20oz of this drink is only as caffeinated as 8oz of their coffee but they say it’s the same content)
If I were an asshole lawyer, I would file a suit that they were misleading by claiming it’s as caffeinated as their coffee. In fact, I’m guessing that would be their slam-dunk defense except we all know they’ll settle because they don’t want bad press.
The larger issue is that caffeine should be regulated to a higher degree than it is
Does that mean you also want to put coffee and iced-coffee dispensers under lock and key? They have a LOT more caffeine than this drink. I’ve paid for bottomless coffee before and taken generous advantage of it. The issue was this girl had an underlying medical condition and was supposed to avoid caffeine. Period.
And their lawyers argument is that Panera doesn’t sell a dark roast coffee with 390ml total caffeine because they’re 16oz cups (with unlimited refills)
Honestly, it’s a tragedy. But Panera is only to blame if there’s information we don’t have in the article that makes them so.
Thank you, a rational take here, everyone has their pitchforks out and aren’t thinking logically about how to deal with it aside from ridiculous things like “it should be illegal!”
It is definitely a tragedy and I feel for the family and friends, however we shouldn’t be jumping to banning it. That is how we end up with a nanny state, some things need to be regulated of course and in this instance it needs to be extremely clear to customers how much caffeine they’ll be injesting.
There’s a lot of things I think are justified bans. Alcoholic energy drinks are a huge example because of the lethal way those two substances interplay on each other (a friend of mine died from a heart condition caused by having too many jaeger bombs). But energy drinks are not killing people left-and-right. And this is very probably the only death that will come from this Panera charged lemonade in its entire run, however long that is.
Even banning alcoholic energy drinks seems a bit too far, I’m generally more in favor of regulating and making warnings for those who are able to handle such things to be able to still enjoy them, rather then banning them because some have preexisting conditions or aren’t able to moderate themselves.
Definitely fair though, I wouldn’t argue strongly against limiting alcohol access in general as we as a society have normalized basically alcoholism and abusing it. I’m not sure what the right answer is on that one :/ I just generally prefer freedom to a sane extent over banning certain things.
Even banning alcoholic energy drinks seems a bit too far
For me in full understanding of how alcohol+energy drinks cause accute alcohol poisoning, I’m ok with forcing people to go through the work of combining them on their own. Nobody is saying you can’t sell red bull in a bar, only that you can’t buy a 24-pack of the stuff premixed.
My thought on banning has always been this. It’s fine to restrict a highly combined product if you allow its components. Someone mixing redbull with jaeger is thinking. Someone drinking a premade alcoholic energy drink is slightly different.
Definitely fair though, I wouldn’t argue strongly against limiting alcohol access in general as we as a society have normalized basically alcoholism and abusing it
I’m comfortable with our current limitations on alcohol, personally…at least when they’re followed.
Wtf lemonade are you drinking that’s high in caffeine?
Did you read the article?
"Katz had a heart condition called long QT syndrome type 1 and avoided energy drinks at the recommendation of her doctors, according to the filing.
was advertised as a “plant-based and clean” beverage that contained as much caffeine as the restaurant’s dark roast coffee, according to photos of both the menu and beverage dispensers in the store
also contained guarana
guarana is plant based
I’ll take that as a no
Any free market absolutists want to try to explain to me how situations like this should be handled?
Is this poor girl just the first “collateral damage” that allows the market to (eventually) fix itself? Is it her own fault for not being an expert on caffeinated beverages before buying the drink?
The 30 oz has 390mg of caffeine! That’s four regular cups of coffee. I’m a big guy, and that would mess me up.
I feel like Panera has lost its way after JAB bought it. This wouldn’t fly before and some of their menu items now are just pure excess.
Energy drinks should be sold by prescription only.
There used to be a product called Redline: White Heat from VPX (same people that make bang with the unhinged CEO). It had to be taken off the market because it had an amphetamine analogue in it called AMP Citrate or DMBA.
One scoop of that stuff made me feel like I was going to die. My friend who took Ritalin at the time told me it was more powerful than any other stimulant he had before.
It’s crazy to think this was openly available at health supplement stores for years before the FDA caught wind.
amphetamine analogue
citation needed
Here is the original FDA letter to VPX regarding White Heat. The chemical they are focusing on is 4-Amino-2-Methylpentane Citrate also known as 1,3-Dimethylbutylamine, DMBA, 2-amino-4-methylpentane, AMP citrate, and 4-methyl-2-pentanamine (according to the FDA letter). Upon further research, it seems like, although the structure of the compound is similar to an amphetamine, the actual mechanism of action of these and similar compounds, such as DMAA, still isn’t fully known. So it was a bit inaccurate of me to call it an “amphetamine analogue” since they might not work in a similar manner.
All caffinated beverages should be required to disclose their caffeine content on the packaging.
In this case, there is a large sign on the dispenser that includes caffeine content in mg, as well as comparing it to their dark-roast coffee.
Agreed. Some of us are careful about how much caffeine we ingest because we want it to work when we use it, and/or because we get real twitchy when overcaffeinated.
You mean like how Panera Bread does?
https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-560w,f_auto,q_auto:eco,dpr_2.0/rockcms/2023-10/231017-panera-bread-charged-lemonade-al-1019-f1a04a.jpgThe Charged Lemonade was “offered side-by-side with all of Panera’s non-caffeinated and/or less caffeinated drinks” and was advertised as a “plant-based and clean” beverage that contained as much caffeine as the restaurant’s dark roast coffee, according to photos of both the menu and beverage dispensers in the store, which were included in the wrongful death lawsuit. https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/app/product/57f9b1aa54df4bd2c2eacca55efa1c96.html
Not to disagree with you, you’re right, but I think they should also indicate how much is normal consumption. It’s quite surprising this isn’t something that’s required on the nutritional label.
I have never been to a Panera, are drinks self serve?
That’s insane. I hope not only that they win the lawsuit, but that companies understand stimulants can be harder (even dangerous) on some people.
The way caffeine affects me does not risk my life, but it can get ugly as I have a mental health condition that gets triggered by stimulants. It is so common to rely on caffeine nowadays, and it’s present in many beverages and snacks. People forget it is still a drug.
There should be labels and there should be less of a presence of caffeine (and other legal drugs) in unrelated products. I mean, it’s normal if coffee has caffeine, it shouldn’t be normal that a lemonade has caffeine.
I hate that stimulant abuse has been normalized by society. It’s unhealthy and has social repercussions. No one should have to drink a pick-me-up instead of working sane hours and being allowed rests whenever they need them. And then we run into your issue, the stimulant-intolerant portion of society gets screwed. Honestly, in the long run, this mainstream disregard for various elements of society (due imo to the capitalist drive for profit out of labor) is like a passive eugenics program. But when we look at other species, we consider genetic diversity to be a mark of health and resilience. True to my handle, I don’t expect this behavior to end well for us.
There should be labels and there should be less of a presence of caffeine (and other legal drugs) in unrelated products. I mean, it’s normal if coffee has caffeine, it shouldn’t be normal that a lemonade has caffeine.
I disagree. Don’t get me wrong - fuck Panera in general, but I’m all for more products being offered so long as they’re properly labeled which this was. Also with a name like charged lemonade it heavily omplies it’s not normal lemonade. There’s an argument to be made here about personal responsibilities and reading labels.
The beverage contains 390mg, which is equivalent to 6.5 cups of coffee. I hope this will be used as a case study for other businesses on how to properly label your drinks and further increase transparancy about ingredients used in beverages.
6.5 thimble-sized cups. Compare to an average large coffee (431mg/20oz from Dunkin), or to the average amount consumed by coffee drinkers (~200mg for adults on average, with the 90th percentile being 300-400mg depending on the age group).
Holy crap, just imagine if they accidentally got the mix ratio on the machine wrong and somebody got a higher concentration of syrup.
Panera needs to lose this lawsuit and they need to lose it really hard.
This new trend of soda that’s made of cane sugar and natural coloring is pretty stupid. It’s still a ton of calories and acid on your teeth. At Chipotle, cava, Panera, I’ll get sparkling water out of the Sprite tap and then flavor with a dash of whatever nu soda they have.
Panera, I feel, is 100% at fault here for trying to make soda and apparently ENERGY DRINKS seem innocuous and healthy.
"This new trend "
It’s not really new. It’s that the cane sugar sodas cost more to make, which means cost more to buy. You can taste the difference, but you have to actually care to be willing to pay the increased price.
Jones has always done it. Coca Cola used to release it “Mexican Coca Cola” in my area every few months at $3/bottle.
Isn’t all soda essentially just sugar and food coloring?
And water.
like from the toilet?
BRAWNDO. ITS GOT WHAT PLANTS CRAVE
Y’all need water.
I said SPARKLING water
Lol
That ”sparkling water” is still carbonic acid.
They way I learned Dr. Pepper has caffeine is a friend in high school with a similar undiagnosed condition dying after drinking one.
But it’s soda… it’s tragic they died but I just can’t fathom not assuming every soda is cafinated. There’s like a handful of lemon lime sodas that are marketed as uncafinated, and I assume everything else is by default.
I’m not sure where you live, but most of the sodas available here don’t have caffeine unless they’re colas. Fruit flavored sodas and root beers are almost never caffeinated, except for Mellow Yellow which I also learned too late that it had caffeine, as I grabbed one late at night and then couldn’t sleep.
It was less tragic than someone dying, but having it be a guessing game whether something has caffeine and how much is dangerous and it need much clearer labels.
Of course, we really shouldn’t be drinking soda in the first place.
