diff --git a/api/jest-setup.ts b/api/jest-setup.ts
index 6f93c2a1a..4a0129587 100644
--- a/api/jest-setup.ts
+++ b/api/jest-setup.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-// Ensure that process.env values are defined when jest runs code, to match the behaviour
-// configured by serverless's "useDotenv" option (which also uses dotenv-expand).
+// Ensure that process.env values are defined when jest runs code, to match the
+// way serverless interprets env files.
 
 import * as dotenv from 'dotenv';
 import { expand } from 'dotenv-expand';
diff --git a/api/serverless.yml b/api/serverless.yml
index caabfb918..b4a8cf67e 100644
--- a/api/serverless.yml
+++ b/api/serverless.yml
@@ -8,8 +8,6 @@ stages:
     prod:
         observability: true
 
-useDotenv: ${file(./serverless-config-default.yml):useDotenv}
-
 plugins:
     - serverless-prune-plugin
     - serverless-plugin-split-stacks