Is Panera Bread Being Rightfully Sued?

Panera Bread is an American based restaurant that has locations all over the United States. It originated in 1987 and was named St. Louis Bread Company. It started as a small town bakery in San Francisco. Now, Panera is currently being sued because of one of its drinks. In September 2022, a 21 year old IV League student passed away due to the Paneras Charged Lemonade. The caffeine content was alleged to be falsely labeled and caused her to go into cardiac arrest. A large cup of the Charged Lemonade can contain about 390 mg of caffeine. The max amount of caffeine a healthy person should have per day is 400 mg. Not to mention the girl who passed, Sara Katz, had a heart disease that made the amount of caffeine in the lemonades extremely unsafe for her to consume. 

 

Panera Bread advertises the charged lemonades to be a plant-based, clean caffeine energy drink. They also advertise that one cup of the lemonade has the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee. What people don't know is that the comparison is completely untrue. A small cup of the lemonades is the same as a large cup of coffee. This makes the lemonade come off as a reasonable amount of caffeine for a drink, even though it has a significant amount more. One large charged lemonade has a higher caffeine content than 4 redbulls combined.

 

Some people state that Panera has always been transparent about the amount of caffeine in their drinks, and have plenty of warnings before a person can get the drink. They claim that they give enough warnings that people should understand how much is a healthy amount for them to consume. Since the death has been brought to Panera’s attention, they’ve changed their labels on the product and have enhanced their existing caffeine disclosure out of an abundance of caution. It also has not been 100% proven that the charged lemonade was the exact reason why she went into cardiac arrest.

 

In my opinion, Panera Bread is being rightfully sued. 390 mg of caffeine is an insane amount of caffeine for one drink, especially because the drink is lemonade, and isn't even labeled as an energy drink. Panera should either lower the amount of caffeine in the drink or completely get rid of it. It is a major safety concern, and always has been. They should have rethought the idea of that much caffeine in a drink before it even became a problem.

 

Do you think Panera should be getting sued?

Whats the most amount of caffeine you've ever drank?

Would you be willing to try the Charged Lemonade?

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/10/30/panera-bread-charged-lemonade-warning/71382776007/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/panera-fda-charged-lemonade-death-university-pennsylvania-sarah-katz-rcna122110

https://www.panerabread.com/content/panerabread_com/en-us/app/product/40fb30b15a11f63d36a013c81603a8b8.html

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Replies

  • Love the topic choice and super job Annabelle!

  • I personally think that Panera is being rightfully sued in my opnion. The resturaunt needs to be held accountable for any deaths or injuries that was caused as a result of one of their products. I think that the amount of caffeine should have been labeled, because otherwise you would never know how much was in it. 

  • I believe that Panera should be sued, they need to be held accountable for any deaths caused by them. Death should be taken seriously. There shouldn't have been an extreme amount of caffeine in the drink in the first place. I think I would try it still, because it doesn't seem like much caffeine. 

  • I think that the sueing Panera is the right choice. The amount of caffeine in the lemonade is at an extreme amount, I think that the caffeine amount should either be lowered or the lemonade should be taken away. I don't think that I would ever try the Charged Lemonade because I don't ever drink energy drinks.

    • Yes, that is an extreme amount of caffeine for one drink, I think I would try it.

  • In my opinion, I believe that Panera should be held liable for the deaths or damages that it causes. Having way too much caffeine in lemonade, not an energy drink, definitely is careless, especially if it isn't labeled correctly. Personally, I don't drink coffee because I don't feel I need it, and if I did I wouldn't want a tolerance to it.

    • I agree, the are very careless about the amount of caffeine they put in their drinks. They definetely should be held liable.

  • I think Panera is plenty responsible for her death. They directly lied about the contents of the drink and that is in violation of many food production laws. Knowing this stoy, I would not feel safe trying this drink.

    • This is true, I think they are completely responsible for her death. They lied about the amount of caffeine.

  • I think Panera should be getting sued because that isp way too much caffeine to not be telling people about, especially if its in lemonade. I don't drink much caffeine in general but I have had the Panera lemonade. I would be willing to try it cause its a fun experience to have.

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