A battle broke out on Twitter on Sunday when Opposition Leader Danielle Smith appeared to endorse feeding recalled meat from the XL Foods Inc. plant to the hungry rather than disposing of it.
In a response to a tweet from an individual who questioned, “Is there no way to cook it so it’s safe and feed the hungry?”, Smith responded, “I agree. We all know thorough cooking kills E. coli. What a waste.”
NDP Leader Brian Mason instantly responded, tweeting, “I’m appalled that a public official would suggest feeding tainted meat to Albertans living in poverty.”
Smith went on to tweet that she would hate to see good food destroyed if there was a way to salvage it, and that if the recalled beef could be sold, she would be among the first to buy it.
You know that what Smith said may in fact be true (about killing e-coli) but the optics of the statement are just plain bad.
And... I seriously doubt she would be lining up at the supermarket to knowingly buy contaminated beef to feed herself and her friends and family.
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Wasn't politically correct but it was scientifically correct.
I'm off to Co-op now to buy some chicken that I will need to cook to the correct temperature to avoid getting Salmonella.
Not all chicken has salmonella. The chances of getting it are just a lot greater cause it can reside under the surface in chicken, so it's recommended you cook it. Salmonella is also a lot less dangerous then E Coli. It seems like there are voluntary salmonella recalls on a monthly basis. Go check your peanut butter.
Selling knowingly tained beef to anyone is absolutely ridiculous. You'd have to ensure that everyone knew how long they needed to cook it and that they could check the temp.
If one person got sick it would be political suicide.
If you think about it most of us already ate it some of it as we have no idea how long the machines were contaminated prior to the first case being reported. And with only a few people getting sick it is very likely that the vast majority of it was not contaminated. So I would have no issues eating it or serving it to a prison population.
As for homeless I would serve it to them as long as it was cooked by someone else. i wouldn't be distributing it at the food bank even if people were notified it was contaminated.
Rerun: "I seriously doubt she would be lining up at the supermarket to knowingly buy contaminated beef to feed herself"
This sums it up well. Easy to say what she did, but when it comes to actually her buying it..don't think so. Should've kept out the "hungry" part and then it wouldn't seem that bad.
Last edited by Kipperriffic; 10-22-2012 at 03:42 PM.
All I was saying is that we buy meat and serve it to our families every day that may have bacteria in it. When's the last time you had a rare pork chop?
I bet if they offered up the meat for free lots of people would have taken it.
Another politician sticks their foot in their mouth...
