Table 4. Correlation coefficients of internal temperature (package) and quality properties of small package refrigerated beef

	Small package internal temperature	Core temperature of meat	pH of meat	L	a	b	Total bacteria count
Small package internal temperature	1.000	NA2)	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Core temperature of meat	0.4101)	1.000	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
pH of meat	–0.4941)	–0.3381)	1.000	NA	NA	NA	NA
L	0.227	0.4651)	–0.3741)	1.000	NA	NA	NA
a	–0.4731)	0.096	–0.039	0.3191)	1.000	NA	NA
b	0.223	0.3991)	–0.4911)	0.7771)	0.4241)	1.000	NA
Total bacteria count	0.185	0.129	0.249	0.229	–0.094	0.233	1.000

Highly significant statistically at p<0.05.
Not applicable.