Family Sues Panera Bread Claiming ‘Charged Lemonade’ Led to Student’s Death

The parents of a 21-year-old University of Pennsylvania student who died of cardiac arrest last September have filed a lawsuit against Panera, alleging that the chain’s Charged Lemonade contributed to her death. 

Sarah Katz had a congenital heart condition, Long QT Type 1 Syndrome, and as a result, she avoided caffeine and energy drinks. According to the legal filing, she consumed Panera’s Charged Lemonade — which can contain as much caffeine as cans of Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined — in the hours before she suffered a cardiac arrest at a friend’s birthday party. She was taken to a Pennsylvania Presbyterian Hospital where she had a second cardiac arrest just before her death. 

“[Katz] consumed the Panera Charged Lemonade, reasonably confident it was a traditional lemonade and/or electrolyte sports drink containing a reasonable amount of caffeine safe for her to drink,” the lawsuit states. 

According to Panera’s website, its Charged Lemonades are “powered by Clean caffeine from guarana and green coffee extract.” Panera says that a 20-ounce serving has approximately 260 milligrams of caffeine, which its website says is “as much caffeine as our Dark Roast coffee.” 

A 30-ounce serving can contain as much as 390 milligrams of caffeine, which is more than the 114 milligrams found in a 12-ounce can of Red Bull and the 160 milligrams in a 16-ounce can of Monster Energy Drink combined. The Katz family’s attorney told NBC News that Sarah Katz had a 30-ounce cup of Charged Lemonade in the hours before her death. 

“Defendants did not market, advertise, and sell Panera Charged Lemonade in the store as an ‘energy drink,’ which is a drink containing large amounts of caffeine, added sugar, other additives, and stimulants, such as guarana,” the lawsuit reads. It also alleges that Panera customers “are not provided a factual basis for understanding [that Charged Lemonade is] an energy drink containing exorbitant amounts of caffeine, caffeine sources, stimulants, and sugar.” 

Katz’ roommate, Victoria Conway, told WSB-TV that Katz would not have consumed the drink if she’d known its caffeine content. "She had been drinking the lemonade, at least I know 100% concretely, on the day of her death,” she told the news station. “She was very vigilant to avoid caffeine. She never drank coffee. She never drank Red Bull. Panera was not properly advertising this if someone as smart and vigilant as Sarah wasn’t really able to understand what was contained in this drink.”

In a statement sent to NBC News, Panera said that it was “very saddened” to hear about Katz’ death. “[O]ur hearts go out to her family,” a Panera spokesperson said. “At Panera, we strongly believe in transparency around our ingredients. We will work quickly to thoroughly investigate this matter.”

Last December, TikTok creator Sarah Baus went viral after posting a video in which she said that she was shocked to learn Charged Lemonade’s caffeine content. Baus said that she drank “four or five” of the drinks while working from her local Panera cafe. “Panera Bread, this drink should come with a warning because it’s delicious and will lead to my cardiac arrest,” she wrote in the video’s caption. 

Baus’s video was also posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, where it was liked over 127,000 times. “Somebody at Panera [is going to] end up getting sued,” the Twitter user who shared it wrote.