Other products the company makes include Pomi tomato sauce and Aylesbury ice cream. More recently, Parmalat has branched out into publishing and launched Food and Well Being, a magazine that focuses on the latest thinking in the field of nutritional studies. Over the years, Parmalat has branched out into beverages and owns some of Europe's top-selling names in soft drinks including Santal and the Aqua mineral water brand.Its bakery operations include the Archway ginger snaps brand and Mother's Cookies. Its other brands include Clesa, Malu and the Lactantia range of dairy products. It built its reputation on selling two of Italy's staples, cured ham and parmesan cheese. Its brands now dominate Europe's supermarket shelves after rapid expansion over the past 40 years.Its main milk brands include the Parmalat long life milk which is ultra heat treated and which the company has become best known for. It also owns the Sunnydale Farm range of products and the Cacaolat drinking chocolate brand.Its dairy products include the company's ice cream brands, of which the most famous is Loseley ice cream.

He has been replaced by Enrico Bondi, one of Italy's toughest company doctors.The Parmalat affair dwarfs previous continental accounting controversies such as Ahold, the Dutch retailer, which was hit by a €1bn scandal earlier this year.At the centre of the Parmalat scandal is a phantom bank account set up by a company offshoot which was purported to contain €4bn. Not satisfied with mere sponsorship, he eventually bought Parma football club in 1991, a year after Parmalat floated on the Milan stock exchange.However, Mr Tanzi has now been forced out of the company he built up and faces ruin as most of the Tanzi family fortune was tied up in Parmalat shares. Italian milk producers have not been paid since August by Parmalat, which buys 8 per cent of the country's milk output.Italy also said that it would ask Brussels for special dispensation from EU rules on state aid to help the industry, and would also be requesting "support measures" from the EU.However, Mr Berlusconi's new bankruptcy laws and Italy's request for special treatment could be rebuffed by the EU which is concerned that the measures could be used by Italy to disguise illegal state aid to Parmalat.An EU spokesman said: "The bankruptcy decree will have to be assessed by us. It first alerted the company to the €4bn black hole in its accounts.Antonio di Pietro, a member of Italy's centre-left opposition, said yesterday: "The political responsibility of the government is revealed by a law that decriminalises false accounting to protect false balance sheets and leave thousands of investors in their underpants."The Italian government was also forced yesterday into the humiliating act of pleading with the European Union to recognise crisis status for its dairy industry as a result of the scandal. However, unlike Arthur Andersen, the Enron auditor, the two British companies have acted as whistle-blowers, highlighting their concerns over Parmalat's finances.Another crucial player in the affair is Bank of America.

There were fears last night that the scandal could eventually cost Parmalat creditors and shareholders close to €10bn.The scandal has not only dragged in senior figures from the Italian political and business world but also involves the UK accountancy firms Deloitte & Touche and Grant Thornton, which are Parmalat's auditors. Prosecutors have already opened an investigation into the food group.The Italian premier, who has often courted controversy in his own political and business career, suffered an immediate backlash yesterday from political opponents who claimed that Mr Berlusconi's more relaxed stance on accounting rules were at least partly to blame for the affair.Parmalat and its founder, Calisto Tanzi, are now embroiled in an ever-widening criminal investigation into the €4bn "black hole" at the dairy company which was described as "Europe's Enron" by Giulio Tremonti, Italy's Finance Minister. He has also reduced the penalties for false accounting, a move that resulted in the controversial rescinding of an 11-month prison sentence given to Cesare Romiti, the former Fiat chairman.Bank of America, one of Parmalat's main banks, last night said it had filed a criminal complaint over the affair with the Italian authorities. The company said yesterday that it would seek protection under the new laws.The Parmalat scandal is deeply embarrassing for Mr Berlusconi because he has liberalised Italy's accounting rules since coming to power in 2001. It has been dubbed "Europe's Enron" and has propelled Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi towards another head-on confrontation with the European Union. Parmalat, the Italian food group which makes Loseley ice cream and the eponymous brand of long-life milk, was on the verge of bankruptcy last night following a €4bn (£2.8bn) accounting scandal.The crisis immediately raised the prospect of a major political row between the Italian government and the European Union over illegal state aid after Mr Berlusconi yesterday issued a decree rewriting the country's bankruptcy laws in a desperate attempt to salvage Parmalat's assets. Freeview has had an impact because people hear digital radio through it and realise the amazing sound quality."Loser: The ten Clans of Scotland shops in London have sufferedfrom a warm winter.Ferial Josephs, the manager of the Oxford Street branch, said takings were down ten per cent. The warm weather has reduced sales of winter coats and jackets, she said.She added: "People have put the sales on early but it has not been working It is two days before Christmas and it is not busy at all.