When it comes to detecting and reporting food-borne illnesses, Minnesota gets an A — and did so well it was used as a benchmark in grading other states — according to a report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The group used 10 years of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its own "Outbreak Alert!" database to rate the 50 states. Minnesota and Oregon were selected as benchmarks, because of their "strong investigating and reporting systems."

State union officials, stung by Republican state legislators' recent call to reduce state employment by 15 percent, were quick to note the study's findings:

“This is a wonderful report highlighting the incredible work by state employees in the Department of Agriculture and Department of Health who work hard to protect Minnesotans from food-borne illnesses,” said Jim Monroe, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees.

“Taxpayers should know they are getting a good return on their investment as state employees are hard at work protecting them by making sure the food they eat is safe," he said. "It’s ironic that this national recognition arrives on the same week that Republicans pushed ahead to cut state services across the board without giving taxpayers the list of services those Republican lawmakers believe should be cut.”

The study says getting the word out about food problems is important:

“States that aggressively investigate outbreaks and report them to CDC can help nail down the foods that are responsible for making people sick,” said CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal. “But when states aren’t detecting outbreaks, interviewing victims, identifying suspect food sources, or connecting with federal officials, outbreaks can grow larger and more frequent, putting more people at risk.”

States getting an A from the group: Minnesota, Oregon, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Washington and Wyoming.

Grades for other states:

B: Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Vermont.

C: Alabama, Alaska, California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

D: Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia.

Fourteen states failed, reporting only one outbreak of food-borne illness per million people: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.