A British faggot maker has appealed to Facebook over its restrictions on the use of the word.

Mr Brain’s, which began making the pork product in Bristol in 1935, complained that when it tries to post an advert on the social networking site, the word faggots is always blocked.

Facebook has been deactivating the accounts of users who have used the term on their profiles as it is also an offensive word used to describe gay people.

Two Facebook users recently had their accounts temporarily suspended after they wrote about the classic dish traditionally made from pork off-cuts and offal.

Eileen Perrins, 68, from Telford, Shropshire, was unable to use her profile for 12 hours after she posted a picture of the food, while Robert Wilkes, 54, from Taunton, Somerset, was also left wondering why he could not access Facebook after he confessed he “liked faggots”.

Mr Wilkes said: "It may have a different meaning in America but I used it in a food context."

Facebook admitted the two cases were a Transatlantic "misunderstanding" and said the word faggot was not explicitly banned on the site.

But when complaints are made, the social network judges content at face value and where the site does not have sufficient context, it assumes the most common reading.

A spokesman for Mr Brain’s said: "We're really sympathetic to Facebook's need to monitor offensive words, but in the UK faggots are a favourite meal amongst lots of families.

"Surely there must be a way that Facebook can allow us to talk about a traditional British dish?"

Mr Brain's was started by Herbert Brain when he opened a grocery business in Bristol's Temple Street in 1890.

In 1927 he bought premises in Upper York Street in Bristol and used it for bacon curing, smoking and cooking hams.

A suggestion from an employee led to the first production of faggots from the premises in 1935.

The word faggot, often shortened to fag, is also used as a gay slur in the US, although it may be linked to British all-male boarding schools.