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.
I’d like to point out the irony that these enhanced warnings are a tiny sign that will easily be missed if you ignore the MASSIVE signage and marketing that remind the consumer that the beverages are caffeinated.
The silly part is that “see, it’s a WAaaaarrrrning” might hold more protective weight in court than “HEY LOOK WE GOT A FUCKTON OF CAFFEINE” billboards.
These are the sorts of stories and warning labels that make people want to buy it more.
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 healthy daily dose for an average adult
Ain’t Nothin healthy about that lol
It’s very unfortunate what happened to this girl. I don’t understand though how having a serious heart condition, she didn’t read the sign that said “as much caffeine as coffee” or “guarana and green coffee”. I have a few food related conditions and I read or research absolutely everything I consume at a restaurant.
If it was clearly labeled she would have been able to make that choice and there wouldn’t have been a court decision that it wasn’t labeled well enough.
It was clearly labeled with the phrases I listed and the amounts of caffeine.
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I read or research absolutely everything I consume at a restaurant
Generally if this is your standard people will die
It’s a reasonable standard for someone who has a rare heart condition and can’t drink caffeine. Other people are going to die from this lemonade.
You are suggesting people who have a rare air condition to spend their whole life in constant fear every single thing the eater drink having caffeine in it and it’ll eventually kill them.
It’s just not sustainable and not reasonable, it’s so easy to just put a big bold warning label when things have caffeine when you wouldn’t expect it.
It WAS labeled with the phrase “contains as much caffeine as our coffee” and “caffeine from guarana and green coffee”. And yes, I do expect people with a rare condition that might kill them to be wary of caffeine. I’m allergic to tree nuts. Therefore I make sure everything I consume does not have tree nuts. I have celiac disease, so I make sure everything I consume does not contain gluten. I have T1, and learn the carb amounts for everything I consume beforehand. I don’t expect every product to have a warning label for the 1% of people who have those conditions.
Put it this way. Someone died. The labeling wasn’t enough.
Why on earth would they have that much caffeine for a lemonade at Panera?
Why not just call it lemonade coffee or lemonade energy drink? Lemonade is not suppose to have caffeine.
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It’s not coffee.
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“Energy” drinks don’t give you much energy.
I don’t think you should be picking the names for things.
Let me try: “Caffeinated lemonade”
Wow.
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Whatever it is called with that kind of caffeine content you warning label it with listing of exactly how much caffeine it has. Well maybe unless it is named literally “coffee” and is plain brewed coffee and at that brewed coffee with the normal levels of caffeine coffee contains.
Ones frappe, whippazino also better have needed labels in cases, since given all they mix how the heck one is to know what exactly is the contents. Oh this is extra special “angry frappe” with double squared shot expresso, so exactly how much caffeine is that dear seller per one glass? I just thought you put chili in it or something to make it “angry”, but has literally multiple times more caffeine content.
This is why all the energy drinks atleast where I live have the ever present “contains high amount of caffeine x mg/100ml”.
You sell something like that as counter served item with no packaging label to read, well now your menu list must contains at minimum highlights. Something like “our special drunk (HC)” and then somewhere on the menu there reads “HC means high in caffeine”. Then obviously at the counter must be a full labeling booklet of “here is our every product from the plainest brewed coffee to our jumbo mega sandwich and special brew beverage with full nutritional information and ingredients”
Just like one can’t sell say a pastry in cafe with nut creme filling with out having a big marker on all the menus “contains nuts, nut allergies bevare”. Since similarly nut allergic consuming nuts can be life threatening, well for some people consuming caffeine isn’t healthy and must be disclosed.
Whatever it is called with that kind of caffeine content you warning label it with listing of exactly how much caffeine it has.
They have always had signage directly on the dispenser with the caffeine content.
Problem is I don’t think the average person knows caffeine dosage. It should really say “As much caffeine as four coffees” or “a fuckload of caffeine” not “400mg caffeine”.
What it should say is “Contains 98% of the FDA’s daily recommended maximum caffeine dosage, do not drink other caffeinated beverages in the same day”
Sure, if you want to put that label on most coffees as well since the lemonade has the same caffeine per ml. Then you get to the point of having everything labeled so everyone will naturally ignore it.
It’s the same amount of caffeine as coffee has. It literally says it on the sign.
A regular cup of Cafe Blend Dark Roast Coffee at Panera, has 268 mg for a 20-oz cup.
Ok so it actually has less caffeine then because the lemonade has 260mg/20 fl oz. Are you looking at the calorie count by mistake? Either way, a 8mg difference isn’t that significant because different coffees will have variations in caffeine content along the same lines.
When you have health concerns like the girl did, these are things you really should be aware of on your own. Like I can’t have grapefruit juice because of the meds I take, but I don’t demand large signage on everything that might have some in it.
I figured it had more caffeine than tea but less than coffee. Clearly very wrong. Glad I didn’t drink this stuff while I was pregnant.
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.
Sounds like you were given too much stimulation as a child and now anything less makes you uncomfortable.
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.
Ironically, this new warning is a lot smaller than the label, and less visible. It’s just CYA protections from a company it seems that for the first time in a long time, didn’t actually fuck up.
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.
That is correct. If you compare the caffeine content per ml to most coffees, you’ll find that it’s essentially the same. Star bucks coffee, for example, has 410mg for their large cup which is actually more per ml than the lemonades have.
It’s actually about 2/3 the caffeine of any of the most popular coffee blends in the US. It’s also only ~2/3 of the caffeine of Panera’s own Light Roast. That’s why they explicitly compare its caffeination to their dark roast.
Because people are idiots. If they put the mg most people will have no fucking clue what it means and assume it’s a safe amount.
…which is accurate.
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.
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.
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.
Hmm… I need to go get some lemonade from panera…
Sounds good
200mg of caffeine makes me feel ill. 390mg in a lemonade is insane. wtf
Now the sales for that drink is going to go up, due to human curiosity.
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
due to poor labeling by Panera
Having seen the labeling, I would say it’s the opposite of poor. They’re far more focused on the caffeine in this lemonade than I would have expected on first reading the story.
Either signage was missing, or she did the food equivalent of driving the wrong way up a one-way because she was texting.
This is the point.
The location.
In question.
Did not.
Properly label.
The contents.
This will be a shock to some of you, but the practices of a multimillion dollar franchise across many states can in fact have deviation at one location. People’s experience at locations since the event, at locations other than where it occurred, is not a sum guarantee of what happened at the time of this incident and location.
This is the point.
The location.
In question.
Did not.
Properly label.
The contents.
Got any info that points to that? All the articles I’ve read complain that the standard signage isn’t clear enough and that “as much caffeine as dark coffee” is somehow misleading.
Somehow?
A dark coffee has up to ~40 mg of caffeine.
This was nearly 400.
I would say being off by 10X is pretty fucking misleading.
I get it now. You really don’t know much about caffeine or coffee, huh? Keep an open mind and read my reply carefully.
A dark coffee has up to ~40 mg of caffeine.
An 8oz Dark Roast coffee is approximately 100mg of caffeine. The same sized light roast coffee is closer to 150mg of caffeine. Panera’s smallest dark roast is 214mg of caffeine. ~40mg is a 4oz half-cup of lowish-caffeine coffee.
This was nearly 400.
Have you ever seen or held a 30oz cup in your hand? It’s freaking massive. In US terms, it’s a QUART. In rest-of-the-world terms, it’s almost a liter. Every beverage a fast food joint sells is unhealthy at that size (probably including their local filtered water). But the ONE ingredient that isn’t unhealthy in all that is the caffeine! The sugar or sweeteners are the real villains there. 400mg of caffeine for 30oz is simply not excessive. Is it a good amount? Sure. It’s about 2/3 as strong as coffee. You shouldn’t treat it as a caffeine-free beverage. Obviously.
I would say being off by 10X is pretty fucking misleading.
Per Panera’s own nutritional info, this 30oz caffeinated lemonade has about the same total caffeine as a large 20oz hot coffee (which is TINY for a large in the US, but you get free refills as Panera). You’re comparing a 30oz caffeinated lemonade to a 4oz half-cup of lower-caffeine coffee. But as I said, I think it’s ignorance and not bad faith.
So hopefully I’ve just educated you.
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:
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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.
How about a giant sign that says “390mg large” that everyone is just complaining that “how could she know that 390mg was too much”? Because it does actually have the number 390mg on the sign attached to the machine.
The funny thing in this case is that many people replying to this about what Panera should have done are naming things that Panera had already done in this case.
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So, that is a ton of caffeine, but if you have a heart condition you really should be more careful about that shit.
I get what you’re saying, but, for me, it would never even cross my mind that lemonade would ever have caffeine in it to start, let alone an insane amount like Panera has.
It’s called Charged Lemonade; that wouldn’t give you any pause?
That provides no indication that there’s drugs in the lemonade lol
So what do you do with your cell phone at night…
What do you call that thing when you plug it in to the device that’s plugged into the wall and then plugs into the phone what do you call that. And then when that process is done you would say that your phone is fully what…
Also if you don’t know something and you see something new, you do know that you can just ask about it. “This is called charged lemonade what’s in it?”
Yeah man, it’s electrically charged lemonade. Good take.
I mean, it does help to read the sign when you’re getting your drink. The caffeine content is fairly clearly indicated.
When was the last time you had fuckin caffeinated lemonade? How do you be careful about it when you ordered a thing that doesn’t have caffeine literally anywhere else on earth?
There’s generally a sign saying the amount of caffeine it has, and gets advertised as being caffeinated. Yes, people with food issues need to actually read stuff like that.
