Many, since, having been badly affected by cuts (6)
I believe the answer is:
minces
'badly affected by cuts' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both things that one consumes for nourishment as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'many since having been' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'many' could be 'm' (Roman numeral for a thousand) and 'm' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'since' is 'inces' which is present in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for minces that I've seen is " Cuts into small pieces or walks in affected way".)