The 1996 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in Odwalla unpasteurized juice first plunged the fresh produce folks into public crisis mode, much like the Jack-in-the-Box E. coli outbreak of 1993 did for hamburger.

Cyclospora in Guatemalan raspberries in 1996 – it wasn’t California strawberries — added to the public consciousness that fresh could also be risky.

From 1996-2006, almost 500 outbreaks of foodborne illness involving fresh produce were documented, publicized and led to some changes within the industry, yet what author Malcolm Gladwell would call a tipping point — "a point at which a slow gradual change becomes irreversible and then proceeds with gathering pace" — in public awareness about produce-associated risks did not happen until the spinach E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in the fall of 2006.

At least not to the produce-industry leadership who decided those 500 other outbreaks aren’t worth mentioning.

That produce industry leaders snoozed for a decade was reinforced, probably unintentionally, by Bryan Silbermann, president of the U.S. Produce Marketing Association during his Oct. 15, 2011 state-of-the-industry address.

Silbermann said recent weeks felt “eerily” like the lead-up to the PMA summit in 2006, when an outbreak from spinach contaminated with E. coli “hung like a black cloud over us.” In the past month, listeria-tainted cantaloupes from Colorado farm led to at least 23 deaths in 12 states.

Preventing similar outbreaks requires holding accountable everyone involved in growing, shipping and selling fresh produce and not taking shortcuts, Silbermann said.

“It does not matter whether you grow ship or sell along this supply chain, I want you to consider some fundamental truths we must accept as we look for ways to turn this tide around. It must be turned around. Our future depends on it.”

“We have come so far, yet we find ourselves in the same situation in 2006,” Silbermann said.

Or 1996.