691
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Sarah Katz, 21, had a heart condition and was not aware of the drink’s caffeine content, which exceeded that of cans of Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined, according to a legal filing

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

To be fair, the average person is probably not going to really know how much caffeine is a lot of caffeine if you just give them the number, and the fact that people usually drink higher volumes of lemonade than dark coffee might lead to confusion as well. Plus, people don't generally expect caffeine in lemonade, so it's easy to imagine someone just going for the big flavor label and just figuring the smaller stuff is just nutrition labels and ignoring it.

I'm not really sure the best way to label this, it doesn't seem like a great product idea at all tbh, but given the combination of potentially dangerous amounts of caffeine and it being a product one wouldn't normally expect to contain any, I'd think that the labelling should be set up in a way as to be impossible to make assumptions about or ignore. Like, make it as big as the flavor label, in a box of a different color usually used for warnings like red or bright orange or something, and mention that the quantity of caffeine involved can be dangerous to those sensitive in addition to just the number.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

I mean, the label already says "has as much caffeine as coffee". Short of only selling caffeine at a dispensary with giant warnings, I'm not sure there's any action that could or should be taken.

[-] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago

I think the trick is, yeah, on an ounce by ounce basis, as much caffeine as coffee, but people also aren't drinking coffee 30 ounces at a time.

Point of comparison here, a caffeine pill like NoDoze is 200mg and the suggested dose is 1 every 3-4 hours.

The 30 ounces here is about the same as 2 caffeine pills.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

on an ounce by ounce basis, as much caffeine as coffee

Much less caffeine than the typical coffee most of us drink.

but people also aren’t drinking coffee 30 ounces at a time

This lemonade has less caffeine than a Dunkin Large Iced Coffee, one of the most popular drinks in my area. Yeah, they are drinking coffee 20 oz at a time, which is all it takes to hit the same caffeine as 30oz of this lemonade.

Point of comparison here, a caffeine pill like NoDoze is 200mg and the suggested dose is 1 every 3-4 hours.

Counterpoint of comparison, the USDA rates 400mg as the healthy limit for daily intake. I could have a large charged lemonade every day and be comfortably under the "low-risk" line. And as I said elsewhere,

The 30 ounces here is about the same as 2 caffeine pills.

And a joint around here has the same active ingredient as about 20 THC pills. Just because something is in pill form doesn't mean it's a high dosage.

...also, I'd like to note that NoDoze suggests a dosage that hits over 800mg of caffeine a day, about three of these drinks. Also, the same dosage as a pot of coffee that MANY Americans drink every. single. morning.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

As a caffeine fiend and energy drink afficianado, holy fucking shit that an obnoxious amount of caffeine in a fountain drink imo

I'm with you, this needs to be sold individually in cans not free pourable.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

If you have a heart condition or generally just a high sensitivity to caffeine, it's pretty important to know how much is a lot. The vast majority of people do not have any serious issues consuming 300mg or so of caffeine, so putting a bunch of big scary labels on this stuff just seems like overkill. For example, if you have a peanut allergy, it's generally on you to check the allergen list in the fine print, or if you have Celiac disease, you need to either buy stuff specifically labeled gluten-free or confirm with a restaurant, manufacturer, etc.

The fact that all of their signs have not just one, but three separate indicators ("charged", as much caffeine as coffee, and the specific caffeine amount) for anyone who might have a sensitivity is enough to show Panera's due diligence in my opinion.

I do get your point that people wouldn't automatically assume there's caffeine in Panera's random juice drinks, but caffeine is absolutely everywhere right now. I'd personally love for caffeine to be required to be listed in the nutrition label of drinks (or food that contains it) so you would know how much is in a Mountain Dew or Coke. But until that happens, I don't see how Panera could be seen as liable in this situation.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

400mg of caffeine is not potentially dangerous unless you're one of the unlucky few people who have a heart condition. Even then, people with heart conditions aren't necessarily dropping dead because they drank some caffeine.

this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
691 points (97.5% liked)

News

22886 readers
4838 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS