diff --git a/pbuilder-checkparams b/pbuilder-checkparams
index 914ff4b80f2db480ca6654c3e062db93fdd1f61a..a37e23e63c2bbc270d984e532bd10f48b579bc19 100755
--- a/pbuilder-checkparams
+++ b/pbuilder-checkparams
@@ -391,7 +391,7 @@ if [ -z "${CHROOTEXEC}" ]; then
     if [ "$USECGROUP" = "yes" ]; then
         # v215 is required for systemd-escape
         if systemctl is-system-running --quiet >/dev/null 2>&1 && \
-                dpkg --compare-versions "$(dpkg-query -W -f '${Version}' systemd)" gt 215; then
+                dpkg --compare-versions "$(dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Version}' systemd)" gt 215; then
             # --description uses that no-spaces string because the quoting sucks
             # right now, and it would end up trying to execuse $PBUILDER_OPERATION…
             # long-term solution is to turn $CHROOTEXEC into a command and properly
diff --git a/pbuilder-modules b/pbuilder-modules
index d1099e9a136c02002a7bade49d5ccf6af14aa2ad..e2deb526cd1e22452ef5fda251b96f250ccf8c7a 100644
--- a/pbuilder-modules
+++ b/pbuilder-modules
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ is_empty_dir() {
 # $2 → minimum version
 # success if pkg has an higher version, fail otherwise
 package_version_is_older_than() {
-    dpkg --compare-versions "$($CHROOTEXEC dpkg-query -W -f '${Version}' "$1")" lt "$2"
+    dpkg --compare-versions "$($CHROOTEXEC dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Version}' "$1")" lt "$2"
     return $?
 }