diff --git a/lib/docx/office-xml-reader.js b/lib/docx/office-xml-reader.js
index 861b11e1..b4e21e52 100644
--- a/lib/docx/office-xml-reader.js
+++ b/lib/docx/office-xml-reader.js
@@ -22,11 +22,14 @@ function read(xmlString) {
 function readXmlFromZipFile(docxFile, path) {
     if (docxFile.exists(path)) {
         return docxFile.read(path, "utf-8")
-            .then(function (xmlString) {
-                return xmlString.replace(/^\uFEFF/g, '');
-            })
+            .then(stripUtf8Bom)
             .then(read);
     } else {
         return promises.resolve(null);
     }
 }
+
+
+function stripUtf8Bom(xmlString) {
+    return xmlString.replace(/^\uFEFF/g, '');
+}