For those who don’t know yet, well, Panera Bread is a well-known restaurant chain that specializes in soups, salads, and baked goods. Though, a few days ago, they made headlines for an interesting reason: one of their drinks named Charged Lemonade. What was that? This drink was marketed as “clean” and “made from plants”; hence customers thought it was safe for use. As a result, people might have to question their choices. However, it turns out, it’s not what they say it is: Charged Lemonade can deliver a hefty caffeine punch totally hard to miss if you drink it at the wrong time. It’s sort of like those strong coffee beans or energy drinks really. So, let’s just go over this Panera Lemonade Lawsuit and see what is really the case.
What’s Really in Panera’s Charged Lemonade?
For starters, Charged Lemonade is something distinctly different from the standard lemonade. Like, through a conceptual approach, the marketing of the drink by Panera stated that it is “plant-based” and shows “clean” tactics equivalent to water flavored with some drops of lemon or a sports drink that is good for your body. However, a large 30-ounce cup was found to possess twice the caffeine than two cans of Red Bull and Monster products combined! The other notable ingredient was sugar, which also ranked off the charts.
Some consumers may not have become aware of the caffeine content in this beverage, especially in view of the fact that it was shown as part of the regular lemonades, teas, and non-caffeinated categories on the menu. The placement indicated that it was simply one more refreshing option whereas, at its essence, it was just a way of marketing high levels of caffeine in lemon form. The situation has been causing confusion among customers which has led to them being seriously concerned about their health somewhat because of the unclear situation.
Timeline of Events and Lawsuits, Like, How It All Started?
Just so you know though, this unfortunate series of events began on a fateful day back in September 2022, when 21-year-old Sarah Katz, a student at the University of Pennsylvania who had a heart condition, drank a beverage labeled Charged Lemonade, all the while her family claims she thought it was just some lemonade or sports drink the company did not disclose the level of caffeine in it. You see, not long after sipping it, Sarah experienced cardiac arrest and sadly died. Then, in October 2023, her relatives filed a lawsuit for wrongful death against the Panera brand.
For sure, this case acted as a catalyst for other lawsuits. Next, various cases appeared saying that families and individuals have faced serious health problems using Charged Lemonade. That’s not it though, you see, there was another lawsuit from the family of one individual named Dennis Brown, who was a 46-year-old man with high blood pressure along with a genetic disposition, and he also died after the consumption of Charged Lemonade. Then there was a third lawsuit posed by a lady named Lauren Skerritt who in January 2024 portrayed that heart issues were because of the lemonade.
Pursuing after that, Panera has since rendered Charged Lemonade unavailable after it called a “menu transformation” the reason for it being new and different even though the details remained unclear. Though, in the month of October 2024, the company reached consent with Sarah Katz’s family, the particulars of the consent are kept secret. So, we can’t say much about that, but one thing is pretty clear, whenever you are drinking or eating something packaged, make sure you read the ingredient label and actually research just a little bit about what you’re consuming. That’s because big companies do not care about your health.
