Cat food mystery-- looking for opinions/insights

My wife and I have been trying to figure out what's going on with our cat food, and I'm hoping some people might know more than us.

We recently switched to a couple of new kinds of food for our two indoor cats. We tried several kinds and found a couple they really liked, then we ordered a shipment of those from Chewy. But, when we got the cans from Chewy, they seemed like a completely different kind of food.

The cats wouldn't even touch it. It was supposedly the same kind, Purina Ocean Whitefish & Tuna Entree, but rather than devouring it like they did before, they sniffed it for a few seconds and walked away. I've attached two pictures-- the first is the food they loved, and the second is supposedly the exact same kind of food. The difference is obvious.

We suspected that maybe we got a "bad batch" or something, and Chewy sent us replacements (they're very helpful like that). When we got the new shipment, though, it got even stranger. Two out of the three 12-cases we got were the bad food, but one of them was the good kind that the cats loved. Again, same brand, same flavor. The only thing different about them is that the case of good food had an expiration date of January 2028 and the two cases of bad food had an expiration date of May 2028.

We have two theories on this:

1- Something happened to a specific palette of this food in the Chewy warehouse that spoiled it (the one with the May 2028 expiration date). I checked, and the old batch of bad food ALSO had a May 2028 expiration date.

2- The cat food company changed the recipe. My wife has heard that a new parent company bought Purina recently, and we all know how food companies of all kinds (human and otherwise) have been cutting quality as prices rise.

I would love if anyone had any thoughts, opinions, or even any specific knowledge of this situation.