diff --git a/crates/nu-command/src/formats/to/nuon.rs b/crates/nu-command/src/formats/to/nuon.rs
index 7c1f7fb994..db7294482c 100644
--- a/crates/nu-command/src/formats/to/nuon.rs
+++ b/crates/nu-command/src/formats/to/nuon.rs
@@ -215,7 +215,11 @@ static NEEDS_QUOTES_REGEX: Lazy<Regex> = Lazy::new(|| {
 fn needs_quotes(string: &str) -> bool {
     // These are case-sensitive keywords
     match string {
-        "true" | "false" | "null" => return true,
+        // `true`/`false`/`null` are active keywords in JSON and NUON
+        // `&&` is denied by the nu parser for diagnostics reasons
+        // (https://github.com/nushell/nushell/pull/7241)
+        // TODO: remove the extra check in the nuon codepath
+        "true" | "false" | "null" | "&&" => return true,
         _ => (),
     };
     // All other cases are handled here
diff --git a/crates/nu-command/tests/format_conversions/nuon.rs b/crates/nu-command/tests/format_conversions/nuon.rs
index 65322253aa..29a381ab3b 100644
--- a/crates/nu-command/tests/format_conversions/nuon.rs
+++ b/crates/nu-command/tests/format_conversions/nuon.rs
@@ -330,7 +330,9 @@ fn quotes_some_strings_necessarily() {
             '-11.0..-15.0', '11.0..-15.0', '-11.0..15.0',
             '-11.0..<-15.0', '11.0..<-15.0', '-11.0..<15.0',
             '-11.0..', '11.0..', '..15.0', '..-15.0', '..<15.0', '..<-15.0',
-            '2000-01-01', '2022-02-02T14:30:00', '2022-02-02T14:30:00+05:00'
+            '2000-01-01', '2022-02-02T14:30:00', '2022-02-02T14:30:00+05:00',
+            ',',
+            '&&'
             ] | to nuon | from nuon | describe
         "#
     ));