nutritional values of fried products. Indeed, this reaction triggers the formation of harmful new compounds including polymers, free fatty acids and other oxidative substances 6. Cooking oil is commonly used for daily diet preparation. Carotenoid-rich red palm oil is beneficial as it offers vital antioxidants that enhance the well-being of the general population, and fulfil the daily requirement of fatty acids 7. However, a dietary habit survey involving 200 pregnant Nigerian women showed high prevalence of vitamin A deficiency as a result of high episode of malaria, anaemia, and subclinical infections, i.e. upper respiratory and urinary tract infection, despite 80 of them consumed red palm oil for cooking. It is suspected that the cooking methods by these women involve excessive heating which contributed to low vitamin A viability 8. A study has been conducted to evaluate the thermal stability of various palm products, i.e. palm oil, single-and double fractionated palm oleins, red palm olein and palm-based shortening upon 80 hours of heating at 180 6. This study evaluates thermal and phyto-Abstract: Red palm olein is known to be high in carotenes and vitamin E (tocols) and possess various nutritional benefits. This study evaluates the effect of prolonged heating using three common cooking techniques i.e. deep-fat fryer, microwave oven and conventional oven, on the profiles of carotenes and tocols as well as the physico-chemical changes occurring in red palm olein when compared to conventional palm olein. Physico-chemical changes in all oils were gauged based on their peroxide, p-anisidine and total oxidation values, acidity, and fatty acid composition. Both red palm olein and palm olein were thermally stable based on their lower rate of hydrolytic and oxidative degradations as well as higher tocols retention, which allow the oils to undergo heating up to 3 hours using deep-fat fryer and conventional oven. Nevertheless, red palm olein seemed not suitable for prolonged heating processes considering lower retention of carotenes. Microwave heating also influenced the stability of phytonutrients.