Tupperware warns it could go bust without emergency funding

Shares in US firm have fallen almost 50% this week and stock exchange says it is in danger of being delisted

Tupperware, the American plastic food container business founded by the chemist Earl Tupper 77 years ago, has predicted it will go bust unless it can raise emergency funds.

Shares in the Massachusetts firm, which became famous in the 1950s and 1960s when mostly women held Tupperware parties" to sell its plastic containers with patented burping" seal, crashed almost 50% this week after it told investors there was substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern".