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EMARANG: The Agriculture Quarantine Center (BKP) in Semarang, Central Java, has destroyed 20.7 kilograms of food products from Malaysia and Singapore, which were considered to contain potentially dangerous viruses.

The process to destroy the food was carried out on Wednesday at the BKP’s animal quarantine installation by burning and then burying the food. They consisted of seven different food products from Malaysia and a product from Singapore including beef sausages, pork, chicken, meat balls, nuggets and cow offal.

Head of the BKP’s measure and surveillance section, Suwardi, said that the animal-sourced ingredients of the food were suspected to contain Singaporean flu or hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD), and avian influenza viruses dangerous to human health.

BKP’s animal quarantine section head, Heli Afianto, said the foods were mostly seized from Indonesian migrant workers working in Malaysia and Singapore as they were passing through examination checks at Semarang’s Ahmad Yani Airport.