meshConfig.accessLogFormat json format not showing in logs

1

I’m trying to output my istio-proxy logs to JSON format. Below is my yaml

apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: IstioOperator
spec:
  revision: "1-6-14"
  hub: "254549224557.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/istio"
  meshConfig:
    enablePrometheusMerge: false
    accessLogEncoding: JSON
    accessLogFile: "/dev/stdout"
    accessLogFormat: |
      {
        "accessLogFormat": "{\"a\": \"access_log\",\"start_time\": \"%START_TIME%\"}"
      }
  values:
    # Enable access logs
    global:
      proxy:
        accessLogFormat: |
          {
            "accessLogFormat": "{\"a\": \"access_log\",\"start_time\": \"%START_TIME%\"}"
          }

I rolled out istiod and my test service

When I do kubectl logs -f foobar -n test -c istio-proxy i expect a log format of

{"start_time":"2020-09-08T07:16:08.326Z","a":"access_log"}

But nothing happens, logs are same as usual. Its not json and it’s not in the format i want.

2021-09-20T07:13:30.355060Z	info	Channel Connectivity change to CONNECTING
2021-09-20T07:13:30.364513Z	info	Subchannel Connectivity change to READY