Food, tons, ready to eat (5)
I believe the answer is:
tripe
'food' is the definition.
(tripe is a kind of food)
'tons ready to eat' is the wordplay.
'tons' becomes 't'.
'ready to eat' becomes 'ripe' (I've seen this before).
't'+'ripe'='TRIPE'
(Other definitions for tripe that I've seen before include "Garbage" , "Edible lining of cow's stomach - rubbish" , "Bunk" , "Rubbish; stomach as food" , "Balderdash" .)