*If you want to keep your hot cereal mix gluten free, then omit the wheat germ. I do recommend refrigerating your unused mix and here’s why: my jar of wheat germ recommends you refrigerate it after opening. So although most of these ingredients are pretty shelf stable without refrigeration, just to be safe I’d still go ahead and refrigerate. But, I’m not a food scientist. This is just my thinking based on the labels I read.