Cattle washing prior to slaughter is an accepted practice at most major plants in Australia. The principle purposes of pre-slaughter cattle washing in reduce physical contamination on hides reduce microbiological contamination particularly pathogens on hides.

Washing reduces the visible or microbiological contamination of hides or carcases however there is considerably different schools of thought on what even constitutes industry best practice in this area. Furthermore, there is little data available on the various effects of washing on reducing the incidence of cross contamination between the hides and carcases during the dressing process. Cattle identified as'dirty' at ante mortem my be rejected for slaughter or put up fr conditional slaughter and this can require extra processing time or staffing.