Chinese milk producer Maiquer has been fined 73.15 million yuan ($10.73 million) by a local market supervision watchdog for excessive use of food additives.

The diary product company said on Monday night that the market supervision bureau of Hui Autonomous Prefecture of Changji, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where the company is located, said that certain batches of the milk contained food solvent propylene glycol, which made them non-qualified products.

The government decided to confiscate a total of 360,154 yuan in illegal revenues of Maiquer, along with all the non-qualified milk, and the company was fined 73.15 million yuan.

The decision was made after officials in Zhejiang confirmed in July that two batches of Maiquer milk were found to contain excessive amounts of propylene glycol. A preliminary investigation and analysis showed that the detection of propylene glycol in Maiquer pure milk was caused by the excessive use of food additives and flavors in the production process.

On July 3, the Xinjiang market supervision department said it was investigating Maiquer for the illegal use of food additives.

Maiquer said on Monday that the company had suspended production of pure milk on July 3, and has since been strictly examining all production procedures and transportation, as well as sales steps. It said that the rectification has now been completed and the company is gradually resuming production of milk, and will sell it after meeting the relevant standards.

Dairy products account for around 50 percent of Maiquer's revenues, according to statistics.