Ireland’s €1.2bn infant formula industry has been accused of exploiting fears among vulnerable populations to gain market share and adding unnecessary extra ingredients purely to charge a premium price.

Ireland’s hopes of reviving its sugar industry and the aligned development of its biofuels sector could be dashed by draft European proposals to reduce the amount of land devoted to biomass crops.

European biofuel producers have been stunned by a leaked EU draft proposal to impose a limit on the use of crop-based biofuels.

Drought-stricken crops and record high grain prices have strengthened critics of the EU biofuel industry, adding fears of a food crisis to their claims that it does not ultimately reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Senior EU officials have failed to agree on how to measure the full climate impact of biofuels, prolonging uncertainty in a debate that threatens to wipe out large parts of Europe’s biodiesel industry.