EDMONTON — Danielle Smith says she made a mistake when she suggested in a weekend tweet that XL Foods meat should have been delivered to Alberta’s poor rather than tossed into a landfill.

But the Wildrose leader says she misjudged the public’s lack of understanding and awareness that 5.5 million kilograms of XL Foods beef had passed inspection by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and could be safely consumed.

“I would have to say that if you can’t explain something in 140 characters you shouldn’t try to talk about it on Twitter,” Smith told reporters at the legislature Monday. “I have learned a lesson there. It was a mistake to re-tweet it — quite obviously when you look at the reaction of the public.”

Smith was savaged on Twitter Sunday when she appeared to endorse feeding recalled meat from the XL Foods Inc. plant in Brooks 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 ABans 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.

Smith said Monday that even though the meat was deemed free of e. coli contamination, the public wasn’t prepared to give the company the benefit of the doubt.

“I misjudged it. I had hoped there was enough information out there ... but there seems there was no awareness whatsoever that 5.5 million kg of meat was certified as being free from e. coli.”

CFIA gave XL three options: render it, place it in a landfill or to cook it and make it available to the public, but the company made the decision to put it in a landfill.

“I said it was a waste; the Mayor of Brooks said it was a waste. ... Clearly the public disagreed,” Smith said.

But she added she agrees with the company’s decision now in the wake of the tainted meat crisis that has put 16 people in hospital.

“I think it was the right decision because clearly with investor confidence and consumer confidence and producer confidence being shattered the way it has been the last six months, the new management wants to set a new tone,” she said. “They want to have a clean slate so that they can go forward ... without anything hanging over their heads.”

Mason said Monday he didn’t believe Smith was being sincere when she said she wasn’t referring to the tainted meat in her tweet.

“I don’t think that was the context of the discussion at all,” he said. “I don’t accept that explanation.”

While he agreed it was a “terrible waste of food,” he said her suggestion e. coli contaminated meat was fit for poor people but not the rest of the population was “quite distasteful.”

“I think it represents an attitude toward poor people that is at best condescending.”

As the Twitter war of words ensued on the weekend, a steady stream of dump trucks rolled into a Brooks landfill, loaded with the recalled beef from XL Foods.

The first load arrived at about 8 a.m. Saturday for disposal at the Newell Regional Solid Waste Management Authority. By late Sunday, approximately 600 tonnes of frozen product had been dropped off, said landfill manager Ray Juska.

The meat is being compacted in an industrial-grade, clay-lined cell.

dhenton@calgaryherald.com

bweismiller@calgaryherald.com