Panera is facing more controversy over its charged lemonade.
A 28-year-old woman filed a lawsuit in a Delaware court on Thursday alleging that the beverage gave her heart problems.
Lauren Skerritt of Rhode Island claims that she drank two and a half of the highly-caffeinated Charged Lemonade beverages in April 2023 and began getting heart palpitations.
The suit alleges that Skerritt went to the emergency room the next day and was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and has since continued to experience “recurrent episodes of rapid heartbeat that occur suddenly and without pattern.”
Related: Wrongful Death Lawsuit Targets Panera’s ‘Charged Lemonade’
A large 30 oz. serving of Panera’s Charged Lemonade contains 390 milligrams of caffeine in addition to guarana extract, a stimulant.
According to the FDA, the maximum safe amount of caffeine for an adult to have per day is 400 mg. The average person consumes about 135 mg of caffeine daily, per the agency.
“Lauren continues to experience supraventricular tachycardia with associated shortness of breath, palpitations, brain fog, difficulty thinking and concentrating, body shakes, and weakness,” Skerritt’s lawsuit states.
Skerritt’s lawyer, Elizabeth Crawford, said her client’s situation is “devastating” and that she will now have to adjust to a new normal of life.
“You put an innocuous product like lemonade in an innocuous bakery-cafe like Panera, what reasonable consumer is going to be thinking that they’re drinking, essentially, three Red Bulls?” Crawford said. “Everything in her life has been altered because of this situation.”
Related: Panera Bread ‘Charged Lemonade’ Blamed for Second Death
Crawford is the same lawyer that filed two other lawsuits against Panera in recent months on behalf of the families of 21-year-old Sarah Katz and 46-year-old Dennis Brown, who both died after allegedly consuming the Charged Lemonade.
Katz and Brown both had pre-existing health conditions. It is not yet known if Skerritt has pre-existing conditions.
The drink started raising eyebrows after a viral TikTok in December 2022, which claimed that the Charged Lemonade “should be illegal” after realizing how much caffeine was in the beverage.
@sarahebaus @Panera Bread this drink should come with a warning because it’s delicious and will lead to my cardiac arrest #panerabread #mangoyuzucitrus #remotework ♬ original sound – sarahebaus
Panera did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur‘s request for comment.
