The kerfuffle, which has become known locally as "porkgate", erupted when pork was omitted from the menu for next Sunday's event in consideration of Muslim and Jewish guests.

But members of the Orthodox Macedonian community were upset because pork is special in their culture and history.

Now US-based Hindu cleric Rajan Zed has urged the council to take beef off the menu as well.

In a statement on Sunday, Mr Zed said eating beef is considered sacrilegious by Hindus because the cow is held sacred.

He said the council "should be respectful to all the faith traditions while deciding menu for interfaith lunches and dinners as [the] purpose of interfaith gatherings was to bring diverse traditions to sit and eat together in fellowship displaying harmonious coexistence".

Mr Zed, the President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said 40 per cent of the population of Liverpool was born overseas. India and Fiji are in the top ten countries of origin and both countries have significant Hindu populations.

The 2011 census found Fiji is the top overseas birthplace and India ranked fourth. Hindi is the third most spoken language.

Trying to keep the faith

As the luncheon was being hosted on behalf of the Orthodox community, they wanted to eat and share their traditional dishes and that, according to author and musician Alex Dzepovski, includes pork.

Mr Dzepovski said pork is special to the Macedonian community and in historical terms played a large part in their lives under Ottoman rule. To some members of the community it had become a symbol of their survival as pork was their main meat staple for hundreds of years.

So when it was left off the menu for the Liverpool Council lunch it sparked complaints and an article in the online news site Falanga.com.au which complained about the "discriminatory policy of the Municipality of Liverpool".

A translation of the article said that the council was discriminating against Orthodox people (including Macedonian, Serbian, Russian and Greek Orthodox), due to the council's current Islamic leadership.

But the office of Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun​ has said he has no problem with pork or alcohol being served at the luncheon.

When questioned why pork was off the menu, a council spokeswoman had said that "to serve pork at such a lunch would mean that none of the Muslims in attendance could eat ANY of the food served from the kitchen where all the food is prepared. Apparently pork contaminates the food area and therefore would be insulting to our Muslim guests (or Jewish) and be completely at odds with the entire point of an interfaith lunch where we are trying to bring together people of different faiths."

Liverpool councillor Peter Ristevski​ had foreshadowed a motion for a council meeting on Wednesday night pushing for the lunch budget to be increased so the menu can be expanded to include a traditional pork dish as a menu choice.

But a spokeswoman for the council told Fairfax Media they had relented and they would now give guests the options of pork, chicken and beef.

Two options were usually served at council functions and "because Muslims, Hindu and Jewish people don't eat pork, we don't normally serve it", she said.

"This is the protocol at most levels of government for multicultural events … Council holds a large number of functions and events throughout the year and this is the first time we've received a complaint about the menu," she said.

More than 14 different faiths would be represented at the lunch, she said.