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.
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.