The supermarket chain Lidl has edited the Christian cross churches in its Greek food range.
Lidl has done this because it 'does not wish to exclude any religious beliefs'.
Newspapers and other media organisations get into terrible trouble if they are caught altering photographs with easily-available editing technology in order to fit pre-conceived ideas about a particular story.
The 'fake food' story is reported by the website KeepTalkingGreece.com
'You want a picturesque Greek scenery with the church, but you're bothered to see a cross, claiming reasons of falsely understood political correctness? Then you just remove the cross – in this case: several crosses… It sounds unbelievable but it's true. It happened in Belgium and the photoshop was done by a well-known German supermarket chain,' says Keep Talking Greece.
The incident became known after a Belgian customer complained.
'I am shocked to see the Lidl shops that sell Greek products erase part of the Greek landscape and culture,' said one customer, Antoine, according to Keep Talking Greece.
The church in the Lidl image is on the island of Santorini, home to the archaeological site Ancient Akrotiri.
It is used to illustrate the Greek Eridanous series that includes Moussaka, yogurt, pistachios or feta.
RTL.be in Belgium reports that a Lidl spokesman responded: 'We avoid the use of religious symbols because we do not want to exclude any religious beliefs. We are a company that respects diversity and this is what explains the design of this packaging.'
Lidle, a German company, also responded in a statement: 'Our intention has never been to shock, we avoid the use of religious symbols on our packaging to maintain neutrality in all religions, and if it has been perceived differently, we apologise to those who may have been shocked.'
An online petition has also been launched stating that Lidl has 'removed crosses from Greek churches' on their packaging of their Greek week items. 'This has caused a outrage in the Greek community and Christian community,' the petition states. 'Our beliefs make us who we are and as 98% of the Greek population are Christian (orthodox) , Christianity is a big part of being Greek.' The petition describes it as an 'outrage' and protestors are demanding an apology and for the crosses to be edited back in.
