Wheat germ is recognized as the treasure house and essence of nutrition, accounting for only 1.4%–3.9% of the dry weight of the grain. It is extremely rich in quality protein, fat and a variety of vitamins and minerals. In this study, CMC, citric acid, sugar and whole milk powder were used for formulating a wheat germ-based dairy beverage. By using one-factorat- a-time and orthogonal array design, the optimal formulation of the nutritional beverage was determined to consist of 0.08% CMC, 0.05% citric acid, 4% sugar and 4% whole milk powder.