The European Commission officially announced the winner of the EU organic food logo competition. Over the past two months, some 130,000 people voted online to choose the new organic food symbol from among three finalists. The winning design is by Dusan Milenkovic, a student from Germany, who obtained 63% of the overall vote for his “Euro-leaf” logo.

As from 1 July 2010, the organic food logo of the EU will be obligatory on all pre-packaged organic products produced in any EU Member State and which meet the necessary standards. It will be optional for imported products. Other private, regional or national logos will be allowed to appear alongside the EU label. The organic farming regulations will be amended in the coming weeks to include mention of the new logo.

“I’m delighted that we now have a fresh EU organic food logo,” said Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, who first proposed the logo competition. “This exercise has raised the profile of organic food and we now have a logo which everyone will be able to identify with. It’s got a nice elegant design and I look forward to buying products carrying this logo as from July this year.”

The winning logo was the result of a pan-European contest open to art and design students. The nearly 3,500 logo designs submitted were evaluated by an internationally-renowned jury. The best three logos were uploaded on the competition website www.ec.europa.eu/organic-logo and were the subject of an online vote which ended on 31 January 2010.