Radish to Clean BBQ Grease and Stains?

I am naturally a curious person and during my recent day trip to Johore Bahru (Malaysia); I was halfway through a Korean BBQ meal when I noticed something in a small saucer. 

First thought; am I supposed to eat this? It was a piece of radish stabbed with a wooden stick. While the brain was wondering what to do with it, I decided to not waste my brain juice, and just asked the friendly service staff who was from Nepal. 

Turned out it was used to clean the grease and stains from the BBQ grill pan! Now, I have a Ninja Foodi Grill at home and removing the stubborn grill stains is the most irritating chore! Of course I had to give it a try! 

Voila! It really did work! How did this manage to evade my radar for so long!? And I don't remember seeing it being used in other Korean BBQ restaurants as well; most would just go with waxed / baking paper.

Even my elder sister was in awe; and had to confirm it herself. 

The area she scrapped using the radish was quite clean right?

Although the mystery was solved, my mind got curious again. Some BBQ restaurants would use pork lard to oil the pan and you can actually eat the pork lard after that, once all the oil were expressed out. Do you think the radish can be eaten once it has performed its duty?