diff --git a/app/serializers/api/product_serializer.rb b/app/serializers/api/product_serializer.rb
index 33c8ba4430..d97f9967b2 100644
--- a/app/serializers/api/product_serializer.rb
+++ b/app/serializers/api/product_serializer.rb
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ class Api::ProductSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
 
   # return a sanitized html description
   def description_html
-    sanitizer.sanitize_content(object.description).html_safe
+    sanitizer.sanitize_content(object.description)&.html_safe
   end
 
   def properties_with_values
diff --git a/app/services/content_sanitizer.rb b/app/services/content_sanitizer.rb
index fc28e6c1dd..66db2879fd 100644
--- a/app/services/content_sanitizer.rb
+++ b/app/services/content_sanitizer.rb
@@ -14,15 +14,19 @@ class ContentSanitizer
   }.freeze
 
   def strip_content(content)
+    return unless content.present?
+
     content = strip_tags(content.to_s.strip)
 
-    filter_characters(content) if content.present?
+    filter_characters(content)
   end
 
   def sanitize_content(content)
+    return unless content.present?
+
     content = sanitize(content.to_s, tags: ALLOWED_TAGS, attributes: ALLOWED_ATTRIBUTES)
 
-    filter_characters(content) if content.present?
+    filter_characters(content)
   end
 
   private