After the scandal of the Bervini slaughterhouse, recently suspended and effectively closed to production activities by the Val Padana ATS (it remains operational only as a cold store), attention returns to the Mantua slaughterhouses. Once again, Report reveals what happens inside the walls of these establishments.
In the new episode, which aired yesterday 19 April 2026, Giulia Innocenzi and the program crew brought to light a new case, that of the Mario Troni slaughterhouse, in Monzambano, a structure which, according to what was reconstructed by the broadcast, would operate in the same production context and under the same health authority as the Bervini case.
The report comes after an already serious episode that you may remember: during filming, the crew was attacked and hit with an iron stick while documenting the unloading of the animals. A fact that led to the complaint to the Carabinieri and the intervention of the police on site.
Did it end up in burgers?
In Giulia Innocenzi’s report, the workers speak without filters. The filmed conversations show a well-tested system: the parts with blood or pus are discarded manually, but the rest of the meat, coming from animals with trauma and of poor quality, was still recovered, vacuum-packed and sent for grinding.
They put it in burgers. If you go to eat at fast food, the meat is all theirs – says one of the workers.
The instructions, according to testimonies, came directly from the owner of the slaughterhouse, and trimmed cuts were resold as “spider steak“, i.e. fine steaks. The declared objective is to recover as much meat as possible, without throwing anything away.
A system already under observation
The new case fits into an already highly critical context. The Bervini slaughterhouse, at the center of a previous investigation by Report, had been suspended by the ATS Val Padana after the diffusion of images that had turned the spotlight on serious critical issues in the methods of processing and preserving meat.
According to what emerged from the investigations, part of the products would have already arrived in the catering circuits and other commercial channels before the checks, without a complete public alert being activated on the lots involved.
An issue which, together with the difficulties in the traceability of some products, has reopened serious questions about the effectiveness of the health surveillance system in the area.
The sequence of cases is difficult to ignore: Bervini, La Pellegrina (of the AIA-Veronesi group, seized after Greenpeace images documented a serious infestation of mice and abandoned piglet carcasses), Troni. Three different structures, a single territorial health authority, and a common denominator made of alleged serious irregularities, late or absent checks, and public communication reduced to a minimum.
The question that remains open, and that Report rightly continues to ask, is simple: who protects consumers?
