categorize expenses without altering account journals

[Duke Hound]

Hello,

Is it possible to categorize expenses without altering the schedule of 
accounts?  I specifically mean to categorize the expenses so that the 
computer can run an "amount spent" report for a particular category, 
independent of which journal/account the expense happens to have been 
entered.

For example, in the expense account: "Food" i would like to categorize 
food as any number of the following descriptions: "fruit, vegetable, 
travel expense, dinning, grocery store, work cafeteria, vending machine, 
entertainment, gift, etc...".  As I am sure you all agree creating 
subaccounts for each one of these possible combinations of 
classifications would be burdensome and make the chart of accounts 
overly complex.  However, it would be nice to categorize the food 
account expense for the running of reports.

Ideally, what I am thinking of is a categorized description so that the 
computer (when running a report) can automatically filter all expenses 
that are in the categories I am concerned about viewing.  When I say 
reports, I am merely referring to an accumulated total during a time 
period.  The categories are not journals/accounts and are not double 
entered and balanced.  Rather the categories are used as expense 
descriptive labels for a computer to use to filter expenses and derive a 
category total for report.

This allows the chart of account "design" to be separated from the 
presentation.  Changing the chart of accounts by adding a multitude of 
subaccounts to accommodate report generation seems to me to be entirely 
poor practice.  For those of you familiar with programing, I am sure you 
can appreciate this separation. 

Essentially I am wanting to slap "category" description labels onto each 
expense account.  The descriptions don't change the fundamental double 
entry accounting, but rather is merely an aide for category-report 
generation.

Does such a practice exist in modern accounting software? in GNUcash?

Thanks,
d