More palm oil is used for frying and cooking than for any other purposes. Its uses range from salad and cooking oils by the housewife to industrial uses such as frying instant noodles, potato chips, doughnuts, etc. In many countries, traditional cooking provide a large market for liquid oil for domestic purposes. This oil may be used for salad dressing, for frying and for other purposes.

For liquid cooking oil, one of the import consumer requirements is that the oil must remain clear at relatively low temperatures. Palm olein, the liquid fraction of palm oil, is suitable as liquid cooking oil under tropical conditions.

Shortening, margarine and vanaspati are also commonly used for cooking and pan frying.

Vanaspati is another product for which palm oil can be used to great extent. Palm oil, in combination with stearin or hydrogenated palm oil, is used in many countries for making vanaspati. Vanaspati or vegetable ghee is 100% vegetable fat. It is used in various countries of the world as a substitute for butter fat in cooking. Vanaspati when allowed to set up slowly, crystallises into a granular texture. This appearance is usually looked upon as a sign of purity and quality in vanaspati.

In the search for an economical cocoa butter alternative, palm oil and lauric oils have emerged as important source oils in the development of hard butters. Hard butters are well suited for a variety of confectionery applications. Palm oil has been identified as a valuable component in all types of cocoa butter alternatives, namely cocoa butter equivalent, cocoa butter substitute, and cocoa butter extender. It is a source of symmetrical triglycerides vital in the formulation of a cocoa butter equivalent. It can be hydrogenated or hydrogenated and fractionated to yield hard butters with a limited degree of compatibility with cocoa butter, allowing some chocolate liquor to be included in a coating for a flavor enhancement.

Cocoa butter extender prepared from palm olien is suitable for soft coating for cakes and confectionery centres as well as creaming fat for biscuits.

The spray-dried, free flowing powders are generally preferred by the ultimate consumer because they need not be refrigerated. While the principal use of these products is as replacement for cream in coffee, they are also reconstituted and used with cereals, as whipped toppings and in other foods. In formulating coffee creamer, the vegetable fat used range from 35-40% and is one of the most important criteria of quality performance of the product.

Other uses of palm oil include filled milk, spray oil, cream fillings and ice cream powder. Among these, the most important is filled milk (milk from which most of the butter has been replaced by vegetable oil). The product has better keeping quality than natural milk while being similar taste.