diff --git a/src/changes/changes.xml b/src/changes/changes.xml
index aa7220c78..2a7bcbd0a 100644
--- a/src/changes/changes.xml
+++ b/src/changes/changes.xml
@@ -94,6 +94,9 @@ The <action> type attribute can be add,update,fix,remove.
       <action issue="IMAGING-339" dev="kinow" type="add" due-to="Glavo">
         Basic WebP Support #254.
       </action>
+      <action issue="IMAGING-355" dev="ggregory" type="add" due-to="Andrew Khoury, Bruno P. Kinoshita, Gary Gregory">
+        Add option to skip reading GIF metadata #301.
+      </action>
       <!-- UPDATE -->
       <action dev="kinow" type="update" due-to="Dependabot, Gary Gregory">
         Bump actions/cache #225, #228, #239, #240.
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifImageParser.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifImageParser.java
index 662cb8616..4d31aa37a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifImageParser.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifImageParser.java
@@ -409,11 +409,7 @@ public byte[] getIccProfileBytes(final ByteSource byteSource, final GifImagingPa
     @Override
     public ImageInfo getImageInfo(final ByteSource byteSource, final GifImagingParameters params)
             throws ImagingException, IOException {
-        boolean stopReadingBeforeImageData = true;
-        if (params != null) {
-            stopReadingBeforeImageData = params.getStopReadingBeforeImageData();
-        }
-        final GifImageContents blocks = readFile(byteSource, stopReadingBeforeImageData);
+        final GifImageContents blocks = readFile(byteSource, GifImagingParameters.getStopReadingBeforeImageData(params));
 
         final GifHeaderInfo bhi = blocks.gifHeaderInfo;
         if (bhi == null) {
@@ -488,11 +484,7 @@ public Dimension getImageSize(final ByteSource byteSource, final GifImagingParam
     @Override
     public ImageMetadata getMetadata(final ByteSource byteSource, final GifImagingParameters params)
             throws ImagingException, IOException {
-        boolean stopReadingBeforeImageData = true;
-        if (params != null) {
-            stopReadingBeforeImageData = params.getStopReadingBeforeImageData();
-        }
-        final GifImageContents imageContents = readFile(byteSource, stopReadingBeforeImageData);
+        final GifImageContents imageContents = readFile(byteSource, GifImagingParameters.getStopReadingBeforeImageData(params));
 
         final GifHeaderInfo bhi = imageContents.gifHeaderInfo;
         if (bhi == null) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifImagingParameters.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifImagingParameters.java
index 1bca589be..c759614cd 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifImagingParameters.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifImagingParameters.java
@@ -25,6 +25,11 @@
  * @since 1.0-alpha3
  */
 public class GifImagingParameters extends XmpImagingParameters<GifImagingParameters> {
+
+    public static boolean getStopReadingBeforeImageData(final GifImagingParameters params) {
+        return params != null && params.getStopReadingBeforeImageData();
+    }
+
     private boolean stopReadingBeforeImageData;
 
     public boolean getStopReadingBeforeImageData() {
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifReadTest.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifReadTest.java
index 561fd974d..17978815d 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifReadTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/imaging/formats/gif/GifReadTest.java
@@ -146,8 +146,8 @@ public void testMetadata(final File imageFile) throws IOException {
         final ImageMetadata metadata = Imaging.getMetadata(imageFile);
         assertNotNull(metadata);
         assertTrue(metadata instanceof GifImageMetadata);
-        assertTrue(((GifImageMetadata)metadata).getWidth() > 0);
-        assertTrue(((GifImageMetadata)metadata).getHeight() > 0);
+        assertTrue(((GifImageMetadata) metadata).getWidth() > 0);
+        assertTrue(((GifImageMetadata) metadata).getHeight() > 0);
         assertNotNull(metadata.getItems());
     }