California authorities say the suspicious material inside luggage that prompted the shutdown of an airport Tuesday turned out to be five soft drink bottles filled with honey.

The bottles, found inside a checked bag at Meadows Field in Bakersfield, had tested positive for traces of an explosive, local sheriff Donny Youngblood said.

Investigators are trying to determine whether there was something in the honey or on the bag that caused security alarms to go off shortly before 7:30 a.m. local time Tuesday.

They have been questioning the bag's owner, 31-year-old Francisco Ramirez, a gardener from Milwaukee who said he flew to Bakersfield to spend Christmas with his sister.

The discovery of the suspicious material halted flights to and from the airport. Two security officers reported feeling ill after being exposed to the bottles.

Bomb scare at Minneapolis airport

Meanwhile, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport reopened Tuesday afternoon after a section of the airport was briefly evacuated when a police dog detected a suspicious bag on a luggage carousel.

The Transportation Security Administration said a police bomb squad was called to the scene and three security checkpoints were shut down after the dog noticed the bag about 1:45 p.m. local time.

Vehicle traffic into the terminal was stopped as the bag was investigated. The bag was cleared and the airport's concourses and checkpoints reopened about an hour later.

The two airport incidents came less than two weeks after a man was charged with trying to destroy a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit. He is alleged to have smuggled an explosive device on board the aircraft and set if off, but the device sparked only a fire and not the intended explosion.

Airline security and passenger screening at airports around the world have been tightened since the arrest.