Salt brill — tons consumed (7)
I believe the answer is:
acetate
'salt' is the definition.
(acetate is a kind of salt)
'brill tons consumed' is the wordplay.
'brill' becomes 'ace' (I've seen this before).
'tons' becomes 't'.
'consumed' becomes 'ate' (to eat is to consume food).
'ace'+'t'+'ate'='ACETATE'
(Other definitions for acetate that I've seen before include "Recording" , "Textile fibre, plastic" , "film on overhead projector" , "Cellulose ester used in fabrics, LPs etc." , "Artificial textile fibre" .)