diff --git a/catalog/app/components/JsonEditor/State.js b/catalog/app/components/JsonEditor/State.js
index 90bd3d58992..fe08d08eb06 100644
--- a/catalog/app/components/JsonEditor/State.js
+++ b/catalog/app/components/JsonEditor/State.js
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
-import * as dateFns from 'date-fns'
 import * as FP from 'fp-ts'
 import * as R from 'ramda'
 import * as React from 'react'
 
+import * as jsonSchemaUtils from 'utils/json-schema/json-schema'
+
 import { COLUMN_IDS, EMPTY_VALUE } from './constants'
 
 const serializeAddress = (addressPath) => `/${addressPath.join('/')}`
@@ -109,17 +110,17 @@ function calcReactId(valuePath, value) {
 }
 
 function getDefaultValue(jsonDictItem) {
-  if (!jsonDictItem || !jsonDictItem.valueSchema) return EMPTY_VALUE
-
-  const schema = jsonDictItem.valueSchema
-  try {
-    if (schema.format === 'date' && schema.dateformat)
-      return dateFns.format(new Date(), schema.dateformat)
-  } catch (error) {
-    // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
-    console.error(error)
-  }
-  if (schema.default !== undefined) return schema.default
+  if (!jsonDictItem?.valueSchema) return EMPTY_VALUE
+
+  const defaultFromSchema = jsonSchemaUtils.getDefaultValue(jsonDictItem?.valueSchema)
+  if (defaultFromSchema !== undefined) return defaultFromSchema
+
+  // TODO:
+  // get defaults from nested objects
+  // const setDefaults = jsonSchemaUtils.makeSchemaDefaultsSetter(jsonDictItem?.valueSchema)
+  // const nestedDefaultFromSchema = setDefaults()
+  // if (nestedDefaultFromSchema !== undefined) return nestedDefaultFromSchema
+
   return EMPTY_VALUE
 }
 
diff --git a/catalog/app/containers/Bucket/PackageDialog/PackageDialog.tsx b/catalog/app/containers/Bucket/PackageDialog/PackageDialog.tsx
index 02f1be705c0..18199b62bd5 100644
--- a/catalog/app/containers/Bucket/PackageDialog/PackageDialog.tsx
+++ b/catalog/app/containers/Bucket/PackageDialog/PackageDialog.tsx
@@ -13,7 +13,11 @@ import * as APIConnector from 'utils/APIConnector'
 import * as AWS from 'utils/AWS'
 import * as Sentry from 'utils/Sentry'
 import { mkFormError } from 'utils/formTools'
-import { JsonSchema, makeSchemaValidator } from 'utils/json-schema'
+import {
+  JsonSchema,
+  makeSchemaDefaultsSetter,
+  makeSchemaValidator,
+} from 'utils/json-schema'
 import * as packageHandleUtils from 'utils/packageHandle'
 import * as s3paths from 'utils/s3paths'
 import * as workflows from 'utils/workflows'
@@ -169,7 +173,8 @@ export function mkMetaValidator(schema?: JsonSchema) {
     }
 
     if (schema) {
-      const errors = schemaValidator(value || {})
+      const setDefaults = makeSchemaDefaultsSetter(schema)
+      const errors = schemaValidator(setDefaults(value || {}))
       if (errors.length) return errors
     }
 
diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index ffa0f95b181..c40dcee3bba 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 * [Added] Edit button for text files in packages ([#3070](https://github.com/quiltdata/quilt/pull/3070))
 * [Fixed] Fix package creation in S3 buckets with SSE-KMS enabled ([#2754](https://github.com/quiltdata/quilt/pull/2754))
 * [Fixed] Fix creation of packages with large (4+ GiB) files ([#2933](https://github.com/quiltdata/quilt/pull/2933))
+* [Fixed] Fix pre-popullation of default dates when using "dateformat" + {"format": "date"} ([3082](https://github.com/quiltdata/quilt/pull/3082))
 * [Changed] Clean up home page ([#2780](https://github.com/quiltdata/quilt/pull/2780)).
 * [Changed] Make `pkgpush` lambda directly invocable, adjust handling of parameters and errors ([#2776](https://github.com/quiltdata/quilt/pull/2776))
 * [Changed] Push packages via GraphQL ([#2768](https://github.com/quiltdata/quilt/pull/2768))