Malaysia is the second largest producer and exporter of palm oil (PO) and palm kernel oil (PKO) in the world. As one of the major players in PO and PKO trade, it is imperative for Malaysia to ensure that the quality of both oils exported meet the standard requirements established by national authorities and trade specifications defined in international standards. This necessitates the delivery of reliable and reproducible analytical measurements by competent laboratories using validated test methods. According to ISO/IEC 17025 (2017), one of the methods for evaluating the performance of testing laboratories is through the use of reference materials. However, the availability of affordable and method-specific reference materials for the analyses of palm products remains limited despite the increasing demand for the utilisation of palm-based reference materials. Hence, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) initiated a programme in the year 2000 to develop palm-based reference materials to cater to the needs of laboratories involved in quality testing of palm-based products. This article describes MPOB’s experience in the production and characterisation of palm-based reference materials for quality assurance in PO and PKO analyses within the last decade and provides updates on current research in the development of palm-based reference materials at MPOB.