How to remove anchor tag on category link

Hi,

I have added <?php the_category(', '); ?> next to the date on the loop.php file. The category link appears next to the date on every post in my blog page.
However, I’m trying to have just the category name as text, I don’t want the category to be a link. Is there a way to remove the anchor tag around the category name? Or any other solution?

Thanks!