diff --git a/include/caffe/layers/molgrid_data_layer.hpp b/include/caffe/layers/molgrid_data_layer.hpp
index e0c8149305f..6c2908e6df4 100644
--- a/include/caffe/layers/molgrid_data_layer.hpp
+++ b/include/caffe/layers/molgrid_data_layer.hpp
@@ -678,6 +678,11 @@ class MolGridDataLayer : public BaseDataLayer<Dtype> {
 template<typename T>
 static string xyz_to_string(T x, T y, T z)
 {
+    //avoid negative zeros in string representation
+    if(x == 0) x = 0;
+    if(y == 0) y = 0;
+    if(z == 0) z = 0;
+
     std::stringstream ss;
     ss << std::fixed << std::setprecision(3) << x;
     std::string rounded_x = ss.str();