Panera Bread’s highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade is now blamed for a second death, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
Dennis Brown, of Fleming Island, Florida, drank three Charged Lemonades from a local Panera on Oct. 9 and then suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on his way home, the suit says.
Brown, 46, had an unspecified chromosomal deficiency disorder, a developmental delay and a mild intellectual disability. He lived independently, frequently stopping at Panera after his shifts at a supermarket, the legal complaint says. Because he had high blood pressure, he did not consume energy drinks, it adds.
Dennis Brown, of Fleming Island, Florida, drank three Charged Lemonades…
Brown, 46, had an unspecified chromosomal deficiency disorder, a developmental delay and a mild intellectual disability.
Because he had high blood pressure, he did not consume energy drinks, it adds.
Can someone explain why this is Panera Bread’s fault?
Because they sell what looks and tastes like normal lemonade, without any safeguards to make sure you don’t accidentally drink four times the daily recommended limit in one sitting. The signs display the caffeine content in small text next to the calories, which you and I both know that nobody who doesn’t count their calories reads. It’s called “charged” lemonade, in small yellow text on the green sign. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that the lemonade in that lemonade dispenser is normal lemonade.
But why hold them accountable? Starbucks wouldn’t be in trouble if you drank 90 oz of coffee!
Coffee obviously has caffeine, it’s the kind of inseparable from the concept of it. Same goes to a lesser extent with many sodas–anyone who has to watch their caffeine likely knows that coke and doctor pepper have caffeine. But lemonade? Who sells caffeinated lemonade? I guess G-Fuel does, but someone with a heart condition probably knows not to order G-Fuel.
Lemonade is the safe choice when you don’t want caffeine, because to my knowledge nobody (besides Panera bread) has ever sold caffeinated lemonade out of self-service dispensers.
So it’s Panera’s fault because people refuse to read? How does that make sense? Hard lemonade is a thing and it has alcohol. Like if it’s not labeled as regular lemonade (it’s not, it’s labeled charged and tells you it has caffeine, same as hard lemonade tells you it has alcohol), why would you assume it’s “regular” lemonade?
Because you buy Mike’s Hard Lemonade from the beer section of the store and have to show your ID to prove you’re 21 and old enough to buy alcohol. They don’t put it out by the sodas.
In fairness, I see non-alcoholic beer and wine are sold alongside alcoholic ones, too. The same goes for non-dairy foods in the dairy section, nut-free food in the nut spread section, gluten-free food next to gluten-containing food, etc.
Also, would you be outraged at a restaurant (or office) if someone drank too much self-serve coffee and was harmed by that consumption? Not even regular coffee drinkers are informed about how much caffeine they’re consuming in a day, and when they do know the amounts, they don’t know what it means. It’s not on any beans or ground coffee I’ve ever purchased, and many people drink in excess of 400 mg of caffeine per day on a regular basis.
It’s up to the customer to know what they are consuming, including through inquiry if the information is not available. From all accounts, Panera did have information clearly available in several places, and it was not the first time both of the people who died had consumed that lemonade.
As a reminder, both deaths were related to known health issues, and as tragic as they are, Panera would have no idea who’s “at risk” or not.
It’s Panera’s fault because they refuse to make it clear. The only way you can look at the sign displaying the flavors and the caffeine content and notice the caffeine content is if you’ve already decided that Panera is right and you know that the sign shows caffeine content. Every single person I’ve shown the picture of the sign to who isn’t already familiar with these incidents could not tell me how much caffeine was in the drinks after I took my phone back from them, because putting it in tiny low contrast text next to the calories is not a sufficient warning.
If hard cider was sold alongside regular cider, and didn’t require an ID to purchase, and was 150 proof, then a hard cider brewer might get in trouble if someone died from drinking it.
They never disclosed how much caffeine/sugar was in the drink till after the first death. Too much caffeine can kill you.
I don’t think that’s true. In an article on Today published before the first death, they mention that “Though Panera declined to comment to TODAY.com, it posts nutritional content on signage and at drink dispenser stations in-store and at its drive-thru menu. Online and in-app, nutritional facts are posted on each of Panera’s menu items, and note when an item contains caffeine as well.”
The FDA also notes that 400mg is totally safe, and in fact, most regular coffee drinkers consume more than that on a daily basis.
The issue is that someone with a known health condition (both deaths), consumed a product they shouldn’t have been consuming in large quantities. And they had previously consumed the same drink on multiple occasions prior, so it’s hard to claim ignorance.
Because the beverages were poorly marked. People don’t assume lemonade has caffeine, especially energy drink levels of caffeine.
As someone who has gone to the hospital for an overdose on caffeine, I really want to try one of these. Because, I clearly haven’t learned my lesson at all.
Right? I’ve never gone for an overdose, but I have had jangly eyeballs once or twice.
Sounds delicious.
“jangly eyeballs” is the perfect descriptor thanks
Panera should go ahead and put prominent warning labels on it. Call it The lemonade so charged it killed [name of latest victim]. It might double sales of the product.
Why is a bread and soup restaurant selling energy drinks so caffeinated it will kill you if you drink it?
Because caffeine is addictive, and the executives at Panera are addicted to profits.
This drink has 390 milligrams of caffeine in it… That’s equivalent to over SIX goddamn shots of espresso. That’s not a mistake… It’s just insane.
The amount of caffeine per ounce is on par with coffee. Hardly classify that as an ‘energy drink’. Or are you saying they can’t sell coffee either? You can by the same amount of caffeine per drink (30oz), from Starbucks. Why didn’t you mention Starbucks? Caffeine from one place is the same as another.
So people are choosing to drink that shit then sue the company? I’m no fan of big corporations, but this is some bullshit right there. Grown ups making their own decisions warrants a lawsuit now?
Now? It’s been going on forever. It’s why all those really dumb warnings you see on everything are on said things.
True. Look at me getting downvoted by the charged lemonade drinkers 😂
Yep the dude totally killed himself to get that sweet Panera payout. 🤦♂️
Ever heard of the Darwin award?
Found the libertarian.
😂 I don’t know anything about libertarians. I don’t even know the definition of this word.
Edit: fucking grown ass people can’t hold themselves from a drink. Get the fuck outta here with this braindead bullshit. Cry me a fucking river.
I think they assumed you were libertarian because you were giving off irrationally angry vibes while sucking up to a corporation.
Many fake libertarians behave that way. It truly was an honest mistake the other person made.
Probably. But I clearly stated that I’m not a fan of corporations, how was I sucking up to a corporation. I just stated what made sense to me. People choose to drink that shit. Grown ups do it, they believed whatever bullshit that corporation told them like idiots and got themselves in trouble then started bitching about it and sued the corporation. I mean sue them to the ground, I could really care less, but do it over something right, not your own idiocy (not you, them).
It’s what people don’t know that is causing these deaths. Charged lemonade has insane levels of caffeine. Right up to the FDAs safe daily intake limit in a single cup. People think a charged lemonade is roughly equivalent to a red bull. It is not. It is more like 4 red bulls in a large drink. And the company’s advertising itself compares the drink to a dark roast coffee, and slots the drink among their non-caffeine drinks.
The problem is that they are not making informed decisions. If you picked this stuff up randomly one day, you’re not gonna think that it has an insane amount of caffeine in it.
And they encourage people to have more by offering free refills. Remember that one cup goes right up against the FDAs safe intake limit, and that’s assuming you had no other caffeine that day. So they get a refill. Now they’re operating with twice as much caffeine in their system in that instance than the FDA considers safe for daily intake.
Charged lemonade has insane levels of caffeine
Quit your bullshit. Your lying by omission because you have some agenda to push. You report like Fox News does.
The amount of caffeine per fluid ounce, is on par with coffee. Same goes for red bull, be it on the higher side, but still. A redbull is a 12oz. drink, you can’t blindly compare that to a 30oz drink and pretend they’re the same. I can walk into Starbucks right now, get a 20oz drink that has 475mg of caffeine it’s just a venti Featured Blonde Roast… which per ounce, is twice the caffeine than RedBull.
There’s plenty of signs and verbiage, both in store and online, this stuff has caffeine.
Surely you realize it’s easier to down lemonade than coffee?
It’s like cannabis potency in edibles. When the drug is presented in an easy to consume form, people consume way more of it.
Basically the lemonade tastes too good lol
This is a person who already has medical issues that put him at risk of his exact cause of death, and he knowingly endangers his own life by consuming substances - in excess - which would endanger him further. While I understand and am sympathetic to his disabilities, what I don’t understand is how Panera Bread is legally responsible for this person’s death.
Should Panera Bread put a warning label on its charged lemonade? Apparently, it’s necessary. Should they consider lowering the dose of caffeine? Possibly. But if a person in precarious physical health due to having high blood pressure - one who know not to consume highly-caffeinated beverages - does so anyway, and in excess, to the point that it causes a heart attack, I simply cannot see how the one who sold them the caffeinated drink are to blame.
“Knowingly” is a stretch. These self serve dispensers do not make the caffeine content obvious unless you’re desperately trying to defend Panera and already know that they have caffeine
gd at least limit 1 per customer wtf
