A US supermarket chain accused of selling a cake reading ‘Love Wins Fag’ to a gay pastor has filed a counterclaim alleging the pastor wrote the slur himself.

Whole Foods, alleges that Jordan Brown of Austin, Texas, was responsible for adding the gay slur to the end of a customised cake which was ordered to read ‘Love Wins’. Love Wins was a popular slogan used by marriage equality advocates in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of the ban on same-sex marriage.

Brown posted an online video after collecting the cake from the Austin Whole Foods, claiming that the staff corrupted his desired message by adding ‘fag’ after ‘Love Wins’. In the video he points out that the box – which has a transparent viewing panel – is sealed, and so, unaltered by him.

However, suspicions about the veracity of Brown’s claims began to surface almost immediately, with online commentators asking why he did not notice the clearly visible text when handling the box. Others noted a size descrepency between the ‘Love Wins’ and the ‘Fag’.

In its counterclaim, Whole Foods claimed that Brown’s claims are “fraudulent”. “After a deeper investigation of Mr. Brown’s claim, we believe his accusations are fraudulent and we intend to take legal action against both Mr. Brown and his attorney,” the company wrote in a statement, according to the Washington Post.

The company pointed out that reviewing our security footage it became clear that the UPC label – used for scanning products – was in fact on top of the cake box, not on the side of the package, as it appears in Brown’s intial video. Whole Foods released security footage of Brown’s visit to the store with a cashier visibly scanning a code at the top of the cake box.

The case is still ongoing.