diff --git a/lib/tablelib.php b/lib/tablelib.php
index 70138797506..daaf4718e6f 100644
--- a/lib/tablelib.php
+++ b/lib/tablelib.php
@@ -2197,7 +2197,17 @@ class table_default_export_format_parent {
     function format_text($text, $format=FORMAT_MOODLE, $options=NULL, $courseid=NULL) {
         //use some whitespace to indicate where there was some line spacing.
         $text = str_replace(array('</p>', "\n", "\r"), '   ', $text);
-        return strip_tags($text);
+        return html_entity_decode(strip_tags($text));
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Format a row of data, removing HTML tags and entities from each of the cells
+     *
+     * @param array $row
+     * @return array
+     */
+    public function format_data(array $row): array {
+        return array_map([$this, 'format_text'], $row);
     }
 }
 
@@ -2284,13 +2294,13 @@ class table_dataformat_export_format extends table_default_export_format_parent
      * @param array $headers
      */
     public function output_headers($headers) {
-        $this->columns = $headers;
+        $this->columns = $this->format_data($headers);
         if (method_exists($this->dataformat, 'write_header')) {
             error_log('The function write_header() does not support multiple sheets. In order to support multiple sheets you ' .
                 'must implement start_output() and start_sheet() and remove write_header() in your dataformat.');
-            $this->dataformat->write_header($headers);
+            $this->dataformat->write_header($this->columns);
         } else {
-            $this->dataformat->start_sheet($headers);
+            $this->dataformat->start_sheet($this->columns);
         }
     }
 
@@ -2300,6 +2310,10 @@ class table_dataformat_export_format extends table_default_export_format_parent
      * @param array $row One record of data
      */
     public function add_data($row) {
+        if (!$this->supports_html()) {
+            $row = $this->format_data($row);
+        }
+
         $this->dataformat->write_record($row, $this->rownum++);
         return true;
     }
diff --git a/lib/upgrade.txt b/lib/upgrade.txt
index 185b8858582..3996f05caa8 100644
--- a/lib/upgrade.txt
+++ b/lib/upgrade.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ information provided here is intended especially for developers.
 * For plugins that override secondary navigation, the namespace for the custom secondary navigation class has
   changed. It was (for example) mod_mymodule\local\views\secondary but is now
   mod_mymodule\navigation\views\secondary. The old location will continue to work, but will be deprecated in 4.1.
+* When exporting table content, HTML tags/entities will be removed when the selected dataformat does not support HTML
 
 === 4.0.2 ===
 * The core renderer `edit_button` method now accepts an optional `$method` argument (get/post) for the button
diff --git a/reportbuilder/classes/local/helpers/schedule.php b/reportbuilder/classes/local/helpers/schedule.php
index a1335ee2a81..9809bc354c7 100644
--- a/reportbuilder/classes/local/helpers/schedule.php
+++ b/reportbuilder/classes/local/helpers/schedule.php
@@ -24,11 +24,11 @@ use core_user;
 use invalid_parameter_exception;
 use stdClass;
 use stored_file;
+use table_dataformat_export_format;
 use core\message\message;
 use core\plugininfo\dataformat;
 use core_reportbuilder\local\models\audience as audience_model;
 use core_reportbuilder\local\models\schedule as model;
-use core_reportbuilder\output\dataformat_export_format;
 use core_reportbuilder\table\custom_report_table_view;
 
 /**
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ class schedule {
         // cleaned in order to instantiate export class without exception).
         ob_start();
         $table->download = $schedule->get('format');
-        $exportclass = new dataformat_export_format($table, $table->download);
+        $exportclass = new table_dataformat_export_format($table, $table->download);
         ob_end_clean();
 
         // Create our schedule report stored file.
@@ -180,11 +180,14 @@ class schedule {
         $storedfile = \core\dataformat::write_data_to_filearea(
             $filerecord,
             $table->download,
-            $table->headers,
+            $exportclass->format_data($table->headers),
             $table->rawdata,
-            static function(stdClass $record) use ($table, $exportclass): array {
+            static function(stdClass $record, bool $supportshtml) use ($table, $exportclass): array {
                 $record = $table->format_row($record);
-                return $exportclass->format_data($record);
+                if (!$supportshtml) {
+                    $record = $exportclass->format_data($record);
+                }
+                return $record;
             }
         );
 
diff --git a/reportbuilder/classes/output/dataformat_export_format.php b/reportbuilder/classes/output/dataformat_export_format.php
deleted file mode 100644
index 230c8b5488f..00000000000
--- a/reportbuilder/classes/output/dataformat_export_format.php
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,61 +0,0 @@
-<?php
-// This file is part of Moodle - http://moodle.org/
-//
-// Moodle is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
-// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
-// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
-// (at your option) any later version.
-//
-// Moodle is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
-// GNU General Public License for more details.
-//
-// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-// along with Moodle.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-
-declare(strict_types=1);
-
-namespace core_reportbuilder\output;
-
-use table_dataformat_export_format;
-
-defined('MOODLE_INTERNAL') || die();
-
-require_once("{$CFG->libdir}/tablelib.php");
-
-/**
- * Dataformat export class for reports
- *
- * @package     core_reportbuilder
- * @copyright   2021 Paul Holden <paulh@moodle.com>
- * @license     http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU GPL v3 or later
- */
-class dataformat_export_format extends table_dataformat_export_format {
-
-    /**
-     * Add a row of data
-     *
-     * @param array $row
-     * @return bool
-     */
-    public function add_data($row): bool {
-        $row = $this->format_data($row);
-
-        return parent::add_data($row);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Format a row of data. If the export format doesn't support HTML, then format cell contents to remove tags
-     *
-     * @param array $row
-     * @return array
-     */
-    public function format_data(array $row): array {
-        if (!$this->dataformat->supports_html()) {
-            $row = array_map([$this, 'format_text'], $row);
-        }
-
-        return $row;
-    }
-}
diff --git a/reportbuilder/classes/table/base_report_table.php b/reportbuilder/classes/table/base_report_table.php
index 5f72f61bc44..65b405417c8 100644
--- a/reportbuilder/classes/table/base_report_table.php
+++ b/reportbuilder/classes/table/base_report_table.php
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ namespace core_reportbuilder\table;
 use context;
 use moodle_url;
 use renderable;
-use table_default_export_format_parent;
 use table_sql;
 use html_writer;
 use core_table\dynamic;
@@ -30,7 +29,6 @@ use core_reportbuilder\local\filters\base;
 use core_reportbuilder\local\models\report;
 use core_reportbuilder\local\report\base as base_report;
 use core_reportbuilder\local\report\filter;
-use core_reportbuilder\output\dataformat_export_format;
 use core\output\notification;
 
 defined('MOODLE_INTERNAL') || die;
@@ -203,23 +201,6 @@ abstract class base_report_table extends table_sql implements dynamic, renderabl
         return static::construct_order_by($columnsortby);
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Set the export class to use when downloading reports (TODO: consider applying to all tables, MDL-72058)
-     *
-     * @param table_default_export_format_parent|null $exportclass
-     * @return table_default_export_format_parent|null
-     */
-    public function export_class_instance($exportclass = null) {
-        if (is_null($this->exportclass) && $this->is_downloading()) {
-            $this->exportclass = new dataformat_export_format($this, $this->download);
-            if (!$this->exportclass->document_started()) {
-                $this->exportclass->start_document($this->filename, $this->sheettitle);
-            }
-        }
-
-        return $this->exportclass;
-    }
-
     /**
      * Get the context for the table (that of the report persistent)
      *