Mattatoio

Mattatoio is the Italian term for a slaughterhouse, a facility where animals are slaughtered and initially processed for meat production. Typical operations include the intake and holding of livestock in lairage; humane stunning to render animals insensible; bleeding and dressing; evisceration; inspection by veterinary authorities; chilling or freezing; and packaging and storage of meat products. By-products such as bones, blood, and offal are handled for rendering or disposal, while wastewater and solid waste are managed to meet environmental and public health standards.

Slaughterhouses are subject to strict regulatory regimes designed to ensure animal welfare, food safety, worker protection, and environmental compliance. These regimes cover requirements for facility design, equipment hygiene, sanitation, recordkeeping, traceability, and routine veterinary inspection. The handling of animals and meat aims to minimize pain and distress, with methods of stunning widely adopted to ensure rapid loss of consciousness before slaughter.

Historically, centralized slaughterhouses emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries alongside urban growth and public health reforms, replacing older, decentralized methods. Over time, improvements in sanitation, meat inspection, and refrigeration transformed meat supply chains and reduced spoilage.

Today, while the term continues to denote actual slaughterhouses, many facilities have evolved into integrated meat-processing complexes, and some former slaughterhouses have been repurposed as cultural or commercial spaces. The concept remains central to food safety, animal welfare, and environmental management in the meat industry.