Posts in loop ordered by category?

Loops are normally arranged by time, but I would like to arrange them by time and category. All posts from category Fruits would be listed first and from category Vegetables second…

See the wicked illustration below

LOOP STARTS

POST1 FROM CATEGORY FRUIT
POST2 FROM CATEGORY FRUIT

POST3 FROM CATEGORY VEGETABLES
POST4 FROM CATEGORY VEGETABLES

POST5 FROM CATEGORY UNCATEGORIZED
POST6 FROM CATEGORY UNCATEGORIZED

I can of course do this by building three loops, but I think there’s a lighter way to do this, or is there?

// Loop 1
<?php query_posts('cat=1&showposts=2'); ?>
<?php $posts = get_posts('category=1&numberposts=2&offset=0');
foreach ($posts as $post) : start_wp(); ?>
	<div class="post">
		...
	</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

// Loop 2
<?php query_posts('cat=2&showposts=2'); ?>
<?php $posts = get_posts('category=2&numberposts=2&offset=0');
foreach ($posts as $post) : start_wp(); ?>
	<div class="post">
		...
	</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

// Loop 3
<?php query_posts('cat=3&showposts=2'); ?>
<?php $posts = get_posts('category=3&numberposts=2&offset=0');
foreach ($posts as $post) : start_wp(); ?>
	<div class="post">
		...
	</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

All help is appreciated ?? Cheers.