A Tory Party policy think-tank has called for the food industry to create a single method of front-of-pack nutrition labelling.

The Quality of Life Policy Group, which is steered by former agriculture minister John Gummer MP and Zac Goldsmith, editor of The Ecologist magazine, said the two current voluntary schemes - traffic-light labelling and GDAs - were "unhelpful to consumers and unlikely to achieve the desired result of improving healthy eating outcomes".

In a report called Blueprint for a Green Economy, the group called for the FSA, the FDF and IGD to establish a high-level group under an independent chairman to be called the British Food Information Council, which would come up with a single scheme.

The group also criticised the high number of labels being used to detail traceability, provenance, carbon use and method of production. The report claimed it was "confusing and unhelpful and in danger of hindering the kind of food choices that need to be made for health and sustainability".

The report also called for competition law to protect suppliers and independent retailers.

The law should be changed so that "producers do not receive prices below the cost of production, and that products in store are not sold below cost". Below-cost selling threatened local economies' ability to "accommodate successfully a variety of different retail outlets serving different purposes and providing a range of shopping opportunities for the consumer".

There was also a call for the Supermarkets Code of Practice to be strengthened. to remove vagueness in its interpretation, which currently rests on what does or does not constitute "reasonable" behaviour.

The code should provide ways to improve supply chain relations by demanding written records of deals and transparency, said the report, which also tackled climate change.

The report has now been submitted to the shadow cabinet for consideration.