Panera Bread will pull its infamous Charged Lemonade drinks after the highly caffeinated beverages were connected to at least two deaths and prompted lawsuits.
The Charged Lemonades, which contain upwards of 178mg of caffeine for the regular size and 302mg for the large, are being eliminated by the restaurant chain amid a “recent menu transformation”, a Panera spokesperson told NBC News.
“We listened to more than 30,000 guests about what they wanted from Panera, and are focusing next on the broad array of beverages we know our guests desire – ranging from exciting, on-trend flavors, to low-sugar and low-caffeine options,” the spokesperson said.
The beverages were at the center of major lawsuits following the deaths of two people who died after drinking a Charged Lemonade drink.
The family of 21-year-old Sarah Katz sued Panera after Katz, who had a heart condition, died after consuming a Charged Lemonade. The complaint, filed in the Philadelphia court of common pleas in October, stated that Katz had been unaware how much caffeine the beverage contained.
In December, a second lawsuit was filed by the family of Dennis Brown, a 46-year-old man from Florida who died after consuming three Charged Lemonades, NBC News reported. Brown, who had underlying heath conditions, died after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Panera was hit with a third lawsuit in January by a 28-year-old woman in Rhode Island who suffered cardiac injuries after drinking two-and-a-half Charged Lemonades in one day, CNN reported.
Amid the lawsuits, Panera posted a health advisory for the Charged Lemonade drinks, warning that the beverages contained caffeine and were not recommended for children, pregnant or nursing people and those who are sensitive to caffeine.
But family members of those who died have criticized the labels as not going far enough.
Elizabeth Crawford, an attorney for the Katz family, previously told NBC that the added warnings for Charged Lemonades were “baby steps” and that the product was not labeled as an energy drink. A regular cup of coffee contains about 100mg of caffeine.
“It’s misleading in the sense that it’s not indicating that it is an energy drink,” Crawford said to NBC. “I’m happy that we are moving in a direction of making a change, but I consider these baby steps.”
