A lot of red faces.

A Hazmat team from the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was rushed to the airport on Friday morning, after reports of a "a purple liquid" leaking from an "unknown package".

MFB Northern District commander David Wood said they were called at 9am to a shipping business at the airport.

He said nine staff went along with the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Victoria Police and the Airport Fire Service were also called to attend to the incident.

"We cordoned off the area, and carried out an investigation of the packages," Mr Wood said.

"Thirty people were evacuated from the business premises and [people] in the surrounding building [were asked] to shelter in place and not walk out."

But it soon turned out to be a damp squib ...err...a beetroot.

"We verified after a bit of time that it was a beetroot product and not hazardous," Mr Wood said.

"[But] it was also identified that the thing had electrodes inside that ...the issue became 'were they explosives'?

He said the tins were then handed over to the Australian Federal Police Bomb Squad.

"The tin was scanned and it turned out they were internal heat sensors," Mr Wood said.

The incident took more than an hour to control.

An AFP spokesperson said they responded to an incident at a shipping service point at Melbourne Airport on Friday morning involving a package suspected to contain hazardous material.

"The consignment was x-rayed and further examined by attending emergency services, and was subsequently deemed to be non-hazardous," he said.

But Mr Wood said despite the red faces, he'd rather have the "happy ending" any time.

"I'd much prefer it to be that, than [it to be] hazardous," he said.