http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/03/18/the-quotlemon-marketquot-formula-milk.html# 

I came across this article that explains how a “lemon market” occurred in Indonesia in regards to formula milk. Researchers in Indonesia recently found that certain types of baby milk contained bacteria that could be detrimental to an infant’s health. However, instead of taking the appropriate action and informing the consumers, the production of this contaminated milk continued. Due to the lack of information, the parents have no means of determining whether they had been feeding their babies the contaminated milk, until their children would get sick. This failure to inform the consumers is what ultimately resulted in the “lemon market”. It is the government’s responsibility to inform the consumers as everyone is entitled to this right. The government’s inability to provide their citizens with this information was only beneficial to the producers of the contaminated milk. Due to the government’s irresponsible actions, all of the producers of baby formula, including the harmless milk producers suffered. This “lemon market” could have been evaded if the government simply took the time to inform their consumers of the contents in their food and ultimately everyone could have benefited.  It is crucial to establish a well monitored market based economy by the government in order to insure quality products and consumer welfare.  

After reading this article and learning about the concept of “Lemon Markets” in class, I could not help but think that any market has the capacity to potentially transform into a lemon market.  In most cases, buyers know less about the quality of products than the producers or the sellers. Regardless of whether the product is used or new, the buyer would never be able to determine the actual value of the product. This is especially pertinent in the food and drug market since there is no way an individual would know the effects that the food could have on his or her body.