diff --git a/streams/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/state/internals/ValueAndTimestampSerializer.java b/streams/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/state/internals/ValueAndTimestampSerializer.java
index 6db8ccd0b8289..614a0f567447e 100644
--- a/streams/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/state/internals/ValueAndTimestampSerializer.java
+++ b/streams/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/state/internals/ValueAndTimestampSerializer.java
@@ -57,6 +57,16 @@ public byte[] serialize(final String topic,
             return null;
         }
         final byte[] rawValue = valueSerializer.serialize(topic, data);
+
+        // Since we can't control the result of the internal serializer, we make sure that the result
+        // is not null as well.
+        // Serializing non-null values to null can be useful when working with Optional-like values
+        // where the Optional.empty case is serialized to null.
+        // See the discussion here: https://github.com/apache/kafka/pull/7679
+        if (rawValue == null) {
+            return null;
+        }
+
         final byte[] rawTimestamp = timestampSerializer.serialize(topic, timestamp);
         return ByteBuffer
             .allocate(rawTimestamp.length + rawValue.length)
@@ -70,4 +80,4 @@ public void close() {
         valueSerializer.close();
         timestampSerializer.close();
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/streams/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/state/internals/ValueAndTimestampSerializerTest.java b/streams/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/state/internals/ValueAndTimestampSerializerTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..5fa918feb3d2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/streams/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/state/internals/ValueAndTimestampSerializerTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.kafka.streams.state.internals;
+
+import org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.Serdes;
+import org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.Serializer;
+import org.apache.kafka.streams.state.ValueAndTimestamp;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.assertThat;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.notNullValue;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.nullValue;
+
+public class ValueAndTimestampSerializerTest {
+    private static final String topic = "some-topic";
+    private static final long timestamp = 23;
+
+    private static final ValueAndTimestampSerde<String> stringSerde =
+            new ValueAndTimestampSerde<>(Serdes.String());
+
+    @Test
+    public void shouldSerializeNonNullDataUsingTheInternalSerializer() {
+        final String value = "some-string";
+
+        final ValueAndTimestamp<String> valueAndTimestamp = ValueAndTimestamp.make(value, timestamp);
+
+        final byte[] serialized =
+                stringSerde.serializer().serialize(topic, valueAndTimestamp);
+
+        assertThat(serialized, is(notNullValue()));
+
+        final ValueAndTimestamp<String> deserialized =
+                stringSerde.deserializer().deserialize(topic, serialized);
+
+        assertThat(deserialized, is(valueAndTimestamp));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void shouldSerializeNullDataAsNull() {
+        final byte[] serialized =
+                stringSerde.serializer().serialize(topic, ValueAndTimestamp.make(null, timestamp));
+
+        assertThat(serialized, is(nullValue()));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void shouldReturnNullWhenTheInternalSerializerReturnsNull() {
+        // Testing against regressions with respect to https://github.com/apache/kafka/pull/7679
+
+        final Serializer<String> alwaysNullSerializer = (topic, data) -> null;
+
+        final ValueAndTimestampSerializer<String> serializer =
+                new ValueAndTimestampSerializer<>(alwaysNullSerializer);
+
+        final byte[] serialized = serializer.serialize(topic, "non-null-data", timestamp);
+
+        assertThat(serialized, is(nullValue()));
+    }
+}