The watchdog has issued a report it describes as its "Health Warning to Government" and sets out 12 demands it says will help tackle the problems of obesity and diet-related disease.
It has given the government one month to comply with three of the demands, including a commitment by Ofcom to restricting advertising of all foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt during children's television viewing times.
The association has also called for the four biggest high-street supermarkets to take a lead in labelling foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt. It said that it has written to Safeway, Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco to request an urgent meeting.
It is also insisting that the government set up a nutrition council, made up of stakeholders and experts on nutrition, to create a unified approach to tackling the problems.
The Consumers' Association has said that if the government does not respond to its call for action then it will consider steps including naming and shaming products, such as food aimed at children that is high in fat, sugar or salt and promoted using cartoon characters, and a boycott of certain foods.
But the food industry has reacted by saying that it was pointless demonising individual foods and brands. A spokesperson told The Times: "You can eat cream cakes and chips in a diet but people should not eat them all the time. I don't think scaring people is any good and putting a red label on a product will tell consumers nothing."
At the centre of the campaign is a poster created by Team Saatchi showing an ashtray full of broken chips and the words "around a third of all cancers are caused by bad diet". The image appears on the report and was also used on a poster van that has been driven around government buildings, including the Department of Health.
Nick Stace, campaigns director at the Consumers' Association, said: "With a third of all cancers now caused by bad diet and childhood obesity spiralling out of control we have called time on the government's fudge on nutrition."
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