diff --git a/lib/remote_storage/riak.rb b/lib/remote_storage/riak.rb
index 4f36699..7f5cdd4 100644
--- a/lib/remote_storage/riak.rb
+++ b/lib/remote_storage/riak.rb
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ module RemoteStorage
       object = data_bucket.get("#{user}:#{category}:#{key}")
       headers["Content-Type"] = object.content_type
       headers["Last-Modified"] = object.last_modified.to_s(:rfc822)
-      case object.content_type
+      case object.content_type[/^[^;\s]+/]
       when "application/json"
         return object.data.to_json
       else
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ module RemoteStorage
     def put_data(user, category, key, data, content_type=nil)
       object = data_bucket.new("#{user}:#{category}:#{key}")
       object.content_type = content_type || "text/plain; charset=utf-8"
-      data = JSON.parse(data) if content_type == "application/json"
+      data = JSON.parse(data) if content_type[/^[^;\s]+/] == "application/json"
       if serializer_for(object.content_type)
         object.data = data
       else
diff --git a/spec/riak_spec.rb b/spec/riak_spec.rb
index 8b6eb3e..7209cc8 100644
--- a/spec/riak_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/riak_spec.rb
@@ -148,6 +148,31 @@ describe "App with Riak backend" do
           last_response.content_type.must_equal "text/magic"
         end
       end
+
+      describe "with content type containing the encoding" do
+        before do
+          header "Content-Type", "application/json; charset=UTF-8"
+          put "/jimmy/documents/jason", '{"foo": "bar", "unhosted": 1}'
+        end
+
+        it "saves the value (as JSON)" do
+          last_response.status.must_equal 200
+          data_bucket.get("jimmy:documents:jason").data.must_be_kind_of Hash
+          data_bucket.get("jimmy:documents:jason").data.must_equal({"foo" => "bar", "unhosted" => 1})
+        end
+
+        it "uses the requested content type" do
+          data_bucket.get("jimmy:documents:jason").content_type.must_equal "application/json; charset=UTF-8"
+        end
+
+        it "delivers the data correctly" do
+          header "Authorization", "Bearer 123"
+          get "/jimmy/documents/jason"
+
+          last_response.body.must_equal '{"foo":"bar","unhosted":1}'
+          last_response.content_type.must_equal "application/json; charset=UTF-8"
+        end
+      end
     end
 
     describe "DELETE" do