diff --git a/model_zoo/official/cv/ssd/src/dataset.py b/model_zoo/official/cv/ssd/src/dataset.py
index 0550c1be26..73c4cbbb3f 100644
--- a/model_zoo/official/cv/ssd/src/dataset.py
+++ b/model_zoo/official/cv/ssd/src/dataset.py
@@ -105,6 +105,7 @@ def random_sample_crop(image, boxes):
 
 def preprocess_fn(img_id, image, box, is_training):
     """Preprocess function for dataset."""
+    cv2.setNumThreads(2)
 
     def _infer_data(image, input_shape):
         img_h, img_w, _ = image.shape