diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 0a24ec24c..0aeb45229 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 - Fixed issues on OIDC jwk discovery [PR #1268](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1268) [THREESCALE-6913](https://issues.redhat.com/browse/THREESCALE-6913)
 - Fixed Payload limit content-length response header [PR #1266](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1266) [THREESCALE-6736](https://issues.redhat.com/browse/THREESCALE-6736)
 - Fixed IPcheck policy issues with invalid IP [PR #1273](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1273) [THREESCALE-7075](https://issues.redhat.com/browse/THREESCALE-7075)
-
+- Disabled content-caching globally if no policy at all [PR #1278](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1278) [THREESCALE-7016](https://issues.redhat.com/browse/THREESCALE-7016)
 
 
 ### Added
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
 
 
+
 ## [3.10.0] 2021-01-04
 
 Beta1 is stable and moved to final release.
diff --git a/gateway/conf.d/apicast.conf b/gateway/conf.d/apicast.conf
index 6a906b7d2..7c8346a2e 100644
--- a/gateway/conf.d/apicast.conf
+++ b/gateway/conf.d/apicast.conf
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ location @upstream {
   }
 
   #{% capture proxy_cache_valid %}
-  #{#} proxy_cache apicast_cache;
+  #{#} proxy_cache $cache_zone;
   #{#} proxy_cache_key $scheme$request_method$proxy_host$request_uri$service_id;
   #{#} proxy_no_cache $cache_request;
   #{#} proxy_cache_valid {{ env.APICAST_CACHE_STATUS_CODES | default: '200 302'}} {{ env.APICAST_CACHE_MAX_TIME | default: '1m' }};
@@ -166,6 +166,7 @@ location / {
 
   # Variable to enable/disable content cache
   set $cache_request 'true';
+  set $cache_zone 'off';
 
   set $original_request_id $request_id;
   set $upstream_keepalive_key "";
diff --git a/gateway/src/apicast/policy/content_caching/content_caching.lua b/gateway/src/apicast/policy/content_caching/content_caching.lua
index da751f16f..058137c03 100644
--- a/gateway/src/apicast/policy/content_caching/content_caching.lua
+++ b/gateway/src/apicast/policy/content_caching/content_caching.lua
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ local metrics_updater = require('apicast.metrics.updater')
 
 local content_cache_metric = prometheus('counter', "content_caching", "Content caching status", {"status"})
 
+local cache_zone = "apicast_cache"
+
 local new = _M.new
 
 function _M.new(config)
@@ -30,7 +32,9 @@ function _M.new(config)
 end
 
 function _M:access(context)
+  ngx.var.cache_zone = cache_zone
   ngx.var.cache_request = "true"
+
   for _, rule in ipairs(self.rules or {}) do
     local cond_is_true = rule.condition:evaluate(context)
     if cond_is_true and rule.cache then
diff --git a/t/apicast-policy-content-caching.t b/t/apicast-policy-content-caching.t
index 690be7396..4eb457702 100644
--- a/t/apicast-policy-content-caching.t
+++ b/t/apicast-policy-content-caching.t
@@ -429,3 +429,107 @@ __DATA__
 ["X-Cache-Status: MISS", "X-Cache-Status: MISS"]
 --- no_error_log
 [error]
+
+
+
+=== TEST 8: HEAD request is enabled if no content-caching
+This is related to https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_proxy_module.html#proxy_cache_convert_head
+and THREESCALE-7016
+--- configuration
+{
+  "services": [
+    {
+      "id": 42,
+      "proxy": {
+        "hosts": ["one"],
+        "policy_chain": [
+          {
+            "name": "apicast.policy.upstream",
+            "configuration":
+              {
+                "rules": [ { "regex": "/", "url": "http://test:$TEST_NGINX_SERVER_PORT/" } ]
+              }
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    }
+  ]
+}
+--- upstream
+  location / {
+     content_by_lua_block {
+       local assert = require('luassert')
+       assert.same(ngx.var.request_method, "HEAD")
+     }
+  }
+--- request
+HEAD /foo
+--- more_headers
+Host: one
+--- expected_response_body_like_multiple eval
+yay, api backend
+--- error_code: 200
+--- no_error_log
+[error]
+
+=== TEST 9: HEAD request is disabled when using content-caching
+This is related to https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_proxy_module.html#proxy_cache_convert_head
+and THREESCALE-7016
+--- configuration
+{
+  "services": [
+    {
+      "id": 42,
+      "proxy": {
+        "hosts": ["one"],
+        "policy_chain": [
+          {
+            "name": "apicast.policy.content_caching",
+            "version": "builtin",
+            "configuration": {
+              "rules": [
+                {
+                  "cache": true,
+                  "header": "X-Cache-Status",
+                  "condition": {
+                    "combine_op": "and",
+                    "operations": [
+                      {
+                        "left": "oo",
+                        "op": "==",
+                        "right": "oo"
+                      }
+                    ]
+                  }
+                }
+              ]
+            }
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "apicast.policy.upstream",
+            "configuration":
+              {
+                "rules": [ { "regex": "/", "url": "http://test:$TEST_NGINX_SERVER_PORT/" } ]
+              }
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    }
+  ]
+}
+--- upstream
+  location / {
+     content_by_lua_block {
+       local assert = require('luassert')
+       assert.same(ngx.var.request_method, "GET")
+     }
+  }
+--- request
+HEAD /foo
+--- more_headers
+Host: one
+--- expected_response_body_like_multiple eval
+yay, api backend
+--- error_code: 200
+--- no_error_log
+[error]