Chinese television has accused an Australian dairy company of tampering with the expiry date on thousands of cans of baby formula.

The issue could damage Australia's growing dairy market in China amid recent broader Chinese consumer concerns about quality control.

Melbourne-based business Oz Dairy, which exports baby formula around the world, was among the companies listed in an annual television gala that aims to protect Chinese consumers.

The host of the program said nearly 20,000 cans of the formula had conflicting use-by dates which appear to have been extended by a year.

The Chinese distributor intercepted the product before it was to be put on sale.

Oz Dairy managing director Christopher Murfett says the formula was within date and the mislabelling was just an innocent mistake.

"The infant formula hasn't expired. It's simply a print mistake on a label," he said.

"We're sincerely apologising to the China government and the China community.

"Unfortunately, it happened through a process through the factory. We've addressed it and we've made sure that [it] can't happen again."

The industry says demand for Australian baby formula has grown since the contamination scandal in 2008 where products made by a Chinese company were deliberately tainted with the chemical melamine, killing six children and poisoning nearly 300,000 others.

Mr Murfett says Australian products are the best in the world and the negative publicity has already affected its business.

"It's certainly put a dampener on our product itself for the Oz Milko brand," he said.

Oz Dairy has recalled the 20,000 cans from China and plans to send replacements with the correct date labelling.