The European Commission says the cycling son of a farmer “has had a lifetime to polish his nutritional knowledge, and has personal experience of how this should be applied in practice. His determined athletic spirit and strong feel for a beneficial diet provided valuable help to the jury in deciding which logos best represented organic products and which will be put forward to the final stage of the competition.”

The selected designs will be posted on http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/logo/index_en.htm by the end of the year. The eventual winner will then be decided by a vote in which every EU citizen can take part.

The new logo will be compulsory on all organic products throughout the European Union.