The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 9 plus 1 letter word HOME ECONOMICS T
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
H
O
M
E
E
C
O
N
O
M
I
C
S
T
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "food technology" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case food technology = home economics t.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.