diff --git a/src/web_api.py b/src/web_api.py
index 0fd1848..f65a03e 100644
--- a/src/web_api.py
+++ b/src/web_api.py
@@ -784,6 +784,8 @@ async def get_health():
         "health",
         Config.HEALTH_CACHE_TTL_SECONDS,
         compute,
+        # never report a state older than a few TTLs: monitors poll /health
+        max_stale=4 * Config.HEALTH_CACHE_TTL_SECONDS,
     )
 
     return HealthResponse(**summary)
@@ -1102,7 +1104,9 @@ _REFRESH_IN_FLIGHT: set = set()
 _REFRESH_FLAG_LOCK = Lock()
 
 
-async def _cached_swr(cache, cache_lock, compute_lock, key, ttl, compute):
+async def _cached_swr(
+    cache, cache_lock, compute_lock, key, ttl, compute, max_stale=None
+):
     """Stale-while-revalidate. Returns (value, served_stale).
 
     fresh -> return inline; expired-but-present -> return the stale value
@@ -1110,13 +1114,19 @@ async def _cached_swr(cache, cache_lock, compute_lock, key, ttl, compute):
     thread is parked on the single-flight lock — under stampede that parking
     exhausted the pool and timed out unrelated endpoints); absent -> cold
     single-flight compute (first request per key since startup).
+
+    ``max_stale`` (seconds) bounds how old a served stale copy may be; older
+    entries are recomputed inline. A worker that idles overnight would
+    otherwise answer its first request with a result from the evening before.
     """
     fresh = _cache_fresh(cache, cache_lock, key, ttl)
     if fresh is not None:
         return fresh, False
     with cache_lock:
         entry = cache.get(key)
-    if entry is not None:
+    if entry is not None and (
+        max_stale is None or time.monotonic() - entry[0] <= max_stale
+    ):
         with _REFRESH_FLAG_LOCK:
             should_start = key not in _REFRESH_IN_FLIGHT
             if should_start:
diff --git a/tests/test_collection_disabled.py b/tests/test_collection_disabled.py
index b785284..76bb1ef 100644
--- a/tests/test_collection_disabled.py
+++ b/tests/test_collection_disabled.py
@@ -94,3 +94,30 @@ def test_manual_trigger_is_refused_when_collection_runs_elsewhere(monkeypatch):
     with pytest.raises(HTTPException) as err:
         asyncio.run(web_api.trigger_scraping(BackgroundTasks()))
     assert err.value.status_code == 409
+
+
+def test_stale_cache_older_than_max_stale_is_recomputed(monkeypatch):
+    """/health must not answer with a result from hours ago."""
+    import asyncio
+    import threading
+    import time
+
+    from src import web_api
+
+    cache, lock, compute_lock = {}, threading.Lock(), threading.Lock()
+    cache["k"] = (time.monotonic() - 3600, "an hour old")
+
+    value, stale = asyncio.run(
+        web_api._cached_swr(
+            cache, lock, compute_lock, "k", 30, lambda: "fresh", max_stale=120
+        )
+    )
+    assert (value, stale) == ("fresh", False)
+
+    cache["k"] = (time.monotonic() - 60, "a minute old")
+    value, stale = asyncio.run(
+        web_api._cached_swr(
+            cache, lock, compute_lock, "k", 30, lambda: "fresh", max_stale=120
+        )
+    )
+    assert (value, stale) == ("a minute old", True)  # SWR within the bound