diff --git a/skimage/io/tests/test_imread.py b/skimage/io/tests/test_imread.py
index 759e8c67..4f172ebb 100644
--- a/skimage/io/tests/test_imread.py
+++ b/skimage/io/tests/test_imread.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import os
 import os.path
 import numpy as np
 from numpy.testing import *
@@ -60,6 +61,20 @@ def test_bilevel():
     assert_array_equal(img.astype(bool), expected)
 
 
+@skipif(not imread_available)
+def test_imread_separate_channels():
+    # Test that imread returns RGBA values contiguously even when they are
+    # stored in separate planes.
+    x = np.zeros((3, 16, 8), np.uint8)
+    f = NamedTemporaryFile(suffix='.tif')
+    fname = f.name
+    f.close()
+    imsave(fname, x, plugin='tifffile')
+    img = imread(fname)
+    os.remove(fname)
+    assert img.shape == (16, 8, 3), img.shape
+
+
 class TestSave:
     def roundtrip(self, x, scaling=1):
         f = NamedTemporaryFile(suffix='.png')