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 don't pour my drinks at 4' distance, and pictures at a closer range make the sign as obviously in-your-face as it looks in person (my experience). It's approximately the biggest, most blatant signs I've seen on a drink dispenser. Not to mention the massive underlined "caffeinated" on the well menu, and the giant floor signs in front of it advertising how caffeinated it is.
It doesn’t have the mg amount on the cups, or if it does, it’s really easy to miss.
Per the sign: "30fl - 430cal - 390mg caffeine"
It does, and that is below the big ad-line about how it's "as much caffeine as our Dark Roast Coffee".
The real problem here is that they were REALLY pushing the caffeinated nature of the lemonade as a value-add, so it was (nearly?) impossible to miss. We don't know the poor girl missed that sign (as it's unlikely she did), and we can tell that fact because the family's lawyer is also already pushing a second argument that the "as much caffeine as our dark roast coffee" is misleading.