diff --git a/backend/src/__tests__/config.test.ts b/backend/src/__tests__/config.test.ts
index aa287308b..4971403af 100644
--- a/backend/src/__tests__/config.test.ts
+++ b/backend/src/__tests__/config.test.ts
@@ -152,4 +152,52 @@ describe('Mempool Backend Config', () => {
       expect(config.EXTERNAL_DATA_SERVER).toStrictEqual(fixture.EXTERNAL_DATA_SERVER);
     });
   });
+
+  test('should ensure the docker start.sh script has default values', () => {
+    jest.isolateModules(() => {
+      const startSh = fs.readFileSync(`${__dirname}/../../../docker/backend/start.sh`, 'utf-8');
+      const fixture = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(`${__dirname}/../__fixtures__/mempool-config.template.json`, 'utf8'));
+
+      function parseJson(jsonObj, root?) {
+        for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(jsonObj)) {
+          // We have a few cases where we can't follow the pattern
+          if (root === 'MEMPOOL' && key === 'HTTP_PORT') {
+            console.log('skipping check for MEMPOOL_HTTP_PORT');
+            return;
+          }
+          switch (typeof value) {
+            case 'object': {
+              if (Array.isArray(value)) {
+                return;
+              } else {
+                parseJson(value, key);
+              }
+              break;
+            }
+            default: {
+              //The flattened string, i.e, __MEMPOOL_ENABLED__
+              const replaceStr = `${root ? '__' + root + '_' : '__'}${key}__`;
+
+              //The string used as the environment variable, i.e, MEMPOOL_ENABLED
+              const envVarStr = `${root ? root : ''}_${key}`;
+
+              //The string used as the default value, to be checked as a regex, i.e, __MEMPOOL_ENABLED__=${MEMPOOL_ENABLED:=(.*)}
+              const defaultEntry = replaceStr + '=' + '\\${' + envVarStr + ':=(.*)' + '}';
+
+              console.log(`looking for ${defaultEntry} in the start.sh script`);
+              const re = new RegExp(defaultEntry);
+              expect(startSh).toMatch(re);
+
+              //The string that actually replaces the values in the config file
+              const sedStr = 'sed -i "s!' + replaceStr + '!${' + replaceStr + '}!g" mempool-config.json';
+              console.log(`looking for ${sedStr} in the start.sh script`);
+              expect(startSh).toContain(sedStr);
+              break;
+            }
+          }
+        }
+      }
+      parseJson(fixture);
+    });
+  });
 });