diff --git a/augur/io/metadata.py b/augur/io/metadata.py
index 32747eceb..bcaef5b79 100644
--- a/augur/io/metadata.py
+++ b/augur/io/metadata.py
@@ -483,7 +483,9 @@ def write_records_to_tsv(records, output_file):
             output_columns,
             extrasaction='ignore',
             delimiter='\t',
-            lineterminator='\n'
+            lineterminator='\n',
+            quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONE,
+            quotechar=None,
         )
         tsv_writer.writeheader()
         tsv_writer.writerow(first_record)
diff --git a/tests/io/test_metadata.py b/tests/io/test_metadata.py
index 301e841e2..45ec13f10 100644
--- a/tests/io/test_metadata.py
+++ b/tests/io/test_metadata.py
@@ -466,7 +466,7 @@ def output_records():
 def expected_output_tsv():
     return (
         "strain\tcountry\tdate\n"
-        'SEQ_A\t"""USA"""\t2020-10-01\n'
+        'SEQ_A\t"USA"\t2020-10-01\n'
         "SEQ_T\tUSA\t2020-10-02\n"
     )