Tomatoes are one of the major fresh produce commodities consumed in the United States. Harvesting tomato fruit at a later stage of development can enhance consumer acceptance but can also increase damage due to bruising. Bruising can affect the quality of whole tomatoes by causing an unacceptable appearance and accelerating decay. Bruising may also facilitate bacterial attachment to the fruit surface and support growth of pathogens. This study evaluated the survival and/or proliferation of Escherichia coliO157:H7 and Salmonellaon the surface of artificially bruised and unbruised tomatoes at three ripeness stages (breaker, pink, and red) and two storage temperatures (10 and 20°C). A total of 1,440 tomatoes, 720 for each organism, were analyzed. Both E. coliO157:H7 and Salmonellacounts declined significantly (P< 0.05) on the bruised and unbruised tomatoes over the 7-day storage period, by approximately 2.5 and 2.0 log, respectively. E. coliO157:H7 was not detected on pink tomatoes on day 7, whereas Salmonellapersisted on the tomato surfaces throughout the 7-day study at all ripeness stages. Bruising had no significant effect (P> 0.05) on the survival of E. coliO157:H7 (CFU per tomato) compared with the unbruised tomatoes, in most cases. Tomatoes from the red ripeness stage showed a significant effect (P< 0.05) of bruising on Salmonellasurvival at both 10 and 20°C. Similar to the colony count results, the frequency (presence or absence) of inoculated tomatoes with detectable levels of inoculated bacteria decreased significantly (P< 0.05) over time. At the lower temperature, E. coliO157:H7 was recovered from significantly higher (P< 0.05) numbers of breaker and pink tomatoes, whereas there was no effect of temperature on the overall survival of E. coliO157:H7 on red tomatoes. Results from this study are essential for understanding the effects of bruising on produce safety and for producers and packers to develop mitigation strategies to control pathogenic and spoilage organisms.